Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft Taps Bloggers to Promote Longhorn
Tim writes "With Beta 1 of Longhorn less than two months away, Microsoft is looking at a new marketing tool to help promote its new Windows: bloggers. According to BetaNews, Microsoft's "Team 99" evangelism effort will be composed of bloggers that will become Microsoft's voice to the masses. Robert Scoble said Team 99 was once secret, but has been revived and Microsoft is now accepting nominations. It's nice to see Microsoft recognizing the power of blogs, but the move is likely going to draw accusations that Redmond is trying to buy off bloggers to hype Longhorn."
...Longhorn...Team 99....how do they come up with these unusual names?
My favorite quote FTA (and I'm not making this up):
"Longhorn got its name from the bar that's between Whistler and Blackcomb up in British Columbia. 99 is the road you drive from my house to get up to the Longhorn bar. So, Team 99 is the team that'll take us to Longhorn's launch," he said.
And people make fun of Linux names!
I'm a virgo and on Slashdot. Coincidence? Yes.
Are they handing out shares of stock? I'll gladly make up a few favorable reviews for a hundred shares.
Free Scotland!
2K
Karma: Chameleon (mostly due to the fact that you come and go).
Microsoft doesn't have the best record in this area, having been caught astroturfing numerous times. At least when you read an 'official' blog, you are aware that you are getting cooperate propaganda.
To make laws that man cannot, and will not obey, serves to bring all law into contempt.
--E.C. Stanton
Whoever is part of this "Team 99" will be consider shills and rightly so. There's one thing using the Internet to express your point of view. It's quite another to extol a companies product for their backing.
If this group was treated as an unbiased reviewers, I'd have more sympathy but as it is, it seems just another corrupted media.
-Teiresias
It's a good idea to recruit bloggers to advertise your product.
It's not a good idea to publicize that you're doing it.
They just created Astro-blogging!
There was an article posted less than a week ago about PR companies harnessing bloggers.... Gee, maybe Microsoft DOES read Slashdot.
My little site.
... It's nice to see Microsoft recognizing the power of blogs, but the move is likely going to draw accusations that Redmond is trying to buy off bloggers to hype Longhorn."
;)
That's a safe bet - MS could release a patch for XP that cured cancer and they'd still be accused of doing something underhanded.
+5:offtopic,but anti-American
I can only hope its more than that and they'll try to buy off every blogger. Man I could use some more cash. I mean come on.
Unfortunately this will be just for the big boys. Gonna have to start watching Wheaton's site. With all the vet bills and mac troubles lately I expect his next release from O'Reilly will now be "Lovin' Longhorn" or something like that. Don't blame him a bit.
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
I move to nominate the Bile Blog.
signed the MaD HuNGaRIaN
Do I hear a second to that motion?
I've often wondered how many Slashdot accounts are operated by paid shills and their ilk.
It's paid-for advertising maskerading as opinion. It's misleading and unethical, and incredibly stupid of them to admit they're going to do it.
I, for one, after reading this, wouldn't trust the opinion of anyone who says in their blog that they like Longhorn; who's to say whether they actually used it and thought it was good, or if Microsoft paid them to lie about it?
All this does is create an environment where you can assume that bad reviews are probably objective, and that good reviews are quite possibly just advertising.
Don't blame me; I'm never given mod points.
that just the other day was reported as threatening people who posted screenshots of Longhorn?
Which is it to be? Do they want it publicised or not?
No, let me guess; only favourable publicity.
It also follows the long Microsoft tradition of providing an innovative product that people not only want to use, but actually look forward to using.
Longhorn truly completes me. And I say this as a former Linux power user for the last twenty years. Really. Now I know that Linux blows and it has nothing to do with that bimonthly check from Redmond. Nothing. Really.
If brevity is the soul of wit, then how does one explain Twitter?
"let's use this blog thing for marketing"
... and how much more I prefer working on my Mac. I don't outright refuse to use Windows - I've used all three major platforms - I just honestly and simply do prefer OS X. Lack of security headaches is a large part of that. MS still hasn't been able to keep the crackers out. When they totally redo their OS to be more secure, I'll feel more comfortable about using it.
i am a soviet space shuttle
good god. another reason to despise blogs.
Am I the only one who thinks blogs and bloggers the most over-hyped thing to come along in years?
Back in the day, there was "Team OS/2," perhaps the first internet astroturf campaign. It worked a little (at Microsoft's expense) but not enough. I bet Microsoft remembers though!
"It's nice to see Microsoft recognizing the power of blogs, but the move is likely going to draw accusations that Redmond is trying to buy off bloggers to hype Longhorn."
Blogging was nice while it lasted. Corporations are quickly going to flood the channel with paid content. If you think the PR machine is powerful in major media, which has lots of people looking for bias, has some regulation, and which does not see $10,000 as any more than pocket change, think what's going to happen to blogs over the next five years.
Suppose Coca-Cola offered to pay Joe Blogpack $2,500 to do a column talking about a dead rat found in a storage container at a Pepsi bottling facility, how quickly do you think he would jump? Do you think he would care if the story is true? And if he did, would he have access to the resources to find out if it's true? Suppose news.google.com is running 200 links to other bloggers who didn't take the time to fact check - our honorable Joe Blogpack checks his facts against the tainted stories and even thinks he's doing the right thing.
Stop-Prism.org: Opt Out of Surveillance
That gives you away.
Also, you forgot to mention:
- how incredibly secure Longhorn is, compared to Linux (measured by patches released so far)
- how Longhorn is considerably cheaper than Linux
- how Longhorn promotes industry standards (such as MS Office)
- how Longhorn runs in a smaller footprint (if you balance your PC on one corner).
Secure, cheap, standard, efficient! That's the message you're supposed to be spreading.
You can get your check anyhow. Usual address, I take it?
My blog
"You will feel much better about that Mac, once you realize that you could have waited a lot longer for a lot less."
Now, where is my money?
Well, looks like MS is going to add paid shill bloggers to their list of paid shills that they use to spread propoganda. There's one in every popular message board, blindly praising MS for everything they do. It's usually easy to pick them out, they just sound fake, and never rationalize anything. I have to wonder what just how many people MS pays to pretend they like everything MS does. After all, I can't imagine anyone doing that for free.
Kinda reminds me of the way McDonalds pays rappers for rapping about the big mac. MS will pay you for writing propaganda about longhorn in your blog. Is nothing sacred?
God is real unless declared integer.
Slashdot has been doing the same for Linux
What we were doing wasn't all that sophisticated (we had an evangelist program as well, which who were far better than us at promoting our messages). There were several viral advertising firms out there that were posting in fake blogs, in real blogs, on multiple forums using fake ids, etc.
While you could argue that viral marketing of this sort is unethical or at least questionable, it really is no different than paying people to walk around with your product in public. Online viral marketing, and placement in a blog, is just another form of PR placement.
Of course there is an ethical question to be answered if blogs are truly a form of news protected by the laws and practices of journalists. If that's the case than these blogs are practicing yellow journalism, which would then throw into question their role as independent journalists (then again if you can find me a 100% untainted all the time news source these days I'd be pretty impressed (especially if they have over 100 readers)).
Compared to Linux, Longhorn is an extensible paradigm shift in operating systems that is designed to facility business agility while improving new customer acquisition. Offering the most secure federation based authenticity validation system Longhorn improves the value proposition while streamlining your business processes and enhancing shareholder value.
Longhorn r0x0rz and Linux sux0rz.
Shocking! Shocking! A blogger might have an agenda? Next thing you know, there will be gambling in the casino, and prayer in the church...
Imagine how much harder physics would be if electrons had feelings! -Feynman, maybe
Microsoft Office
Microsoft XP
Microsoft Flight Simualtor
and any other Microsoft products out there!
And of course Microsoft's notorious "Mac to Windows" switcher website was the one the took the cake. What took them down was using a stock photo... Sheesh!
I mean, really. How hard is it to find ONE photogenic woman in a company the size of Microsoft? Hell, Apple used a LOT of folks in their ads... And they didn't look like models either (nor did their words sound like PR text).
Yup, look to a LOT of "Longhorn allows me to do things the way that make me more productive" blah blah blah...
IANAL, but I've seen actors play them on TV
At last we have a nice concrete example of a large corporation admitting that they're going to spread their propaganda through blogs. It seems like only a couple of weeks ago that I was reading an article about how blogging was the new trusted, untainted source of information as compared to magazine articles. Hmmm, I said to myself, that doesn't seem very believable. Looks like journalists for traditional print-media might get a second chance after all as being some sort of independent voice.
Not worth my time [April 20th, 2005]
Today at the airport I saw a $100 bill, but left it lying there. It's just not worth it.
[Post a comment] [Trackback]
Sweetest Thing [April 25th, 2005]
Bono stopped by for a visit. You can never tell what he's thinking though. I think that's why he wears those sunglasses. Ballmer kept trying to iChat me like every five minutes trying to talk with Bono, but I didn't didn't want to completely negate the Bono's coolness, I know how he can get when he's excited.
[Post a comment] [Trackback]
Tiger Fever! [April 29th, 6:31PM]
Just installed Tiger (waiting for the FedEx truck was *torture*!). I can't believe how great it is. I can't stop hitting F12. Oh, and Spotlight! I'll post a more in-depth review later. Until then, check out the one at Ars Technica, it's really good.
[Post a comment] [Trackback]
Microsoft marketing, if you're reading this, these marketing ploys just make you look pathetic. Stick to what you're good at and play up the heartless corporation aspect of your corporate image. Honestly...
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
They could well employ a million of them, but what good are they if I never read their prose (that is if you could call it that)
I may well be the only one doing it, but I seem to automatically tune out to anything mildly looking like a 'web log' - in the new age sense of the custom at least. CTRL-w.
Same old story really, if I want it, I'll look for objectivity, not the rational (or insane) ravings of an opinionated and payrolled microsoft voice. (or any other corporate entity)
How is paying bloggers to hype a product any different than paying a traditional advertising company (or companies) to hype a product. If anything, using bloggers *could* have backlash not usually induced by traditional advertisers.
/.?" Oh wait, its an open invitation for more Microsoft bashing. We at /. can be quite pitiful sometimes, really.
Day 1: Microsoft hires blogger x for Longhorn adverts/hype.
Day 8: Microsoft unsatisfied with blog commentary.
Day 12: Microsoft pulls funding citing services paid for not provided.
Day 15: Blogger now blogs to anti-hype Longhorn out of spite.
Now, I'm sure that Microsoft will be using the medium in a way that probably won't bite them in the butt later on, but the possibility still exists. With traditional advert companies, losing the client means simply losing an account. With blogging, losing the client means making an enemy in many cases.
All that to say, "Why is this even a story on
Actually, you're supposed to write it "Microsoft® Windows®".
The Farewell Tour II
Now people will assume that any blogger that says nice things about Longhorn is being payed to do so... even if they aren't!
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
The Independent: Reverend Spooner Arrested in Friar Tuck Incident - ISIHAC, Historical Headlines
... the fact that Slashdot hypes it up is hardly surprising. If anything burns Microsoft it is that Slahsdot, a ton of other geek sites on the net and an army of bloggers hyped up Apple's OS.X 'Tiger' a proprietary OS without Apple having to pay them off.
Only to idiots, are orders laws.
-- Henning von Tresckow
WTF!!!!! They won't do secret stuff, but they legally obligate their volunteer shills to do secret stuff!!!! That's very funny.
Remember, you can't spell propoganda without NDA.
As a representitive of Chief Nze Akpamgbo I wish to personally extend my deepest gratitude towards you for undertaking this most secret venture and assisting my associate in his endeavor. You may rest assured that we are currently proceeding with utmost caution and discretion to protect you, our valued assistant in this matter, and to ensure that this transaction is completed in a manner which will provide maximum benefit for all parties.
On the plus side, Last Call won't mean the end to your drinking at this bar. After they lock the doors, I'm sure there'll be windows or some other back entrance that can be easily opened back up.
$5 / month hosted VPS on linux = awesome!
If that makes sense, you're too drunk, and should go home.
I forget what 8 was for.
I was part of one of Microsoft's attempts at getting people who were active on the Internet involved. At the Pocket PC, Wireless, and Beyond shindig in 2000 Microsoft invited 35 people - mainly Palm users - who were active online to Redmond, gave them each a couple of Pocket PCs (and mailed them a couple more over the years), and asked for feedback.
There was no NDA.
There was no attempt to encourage people to be pro-Microsoft or even actively promote the product. I certainly wasn't, I was more than ready to highlight the shortcomings of the products, and they still kept me on their list and sent me units to try on.
And most of all, they didn't just talk... they listened as well.
Three things struck me:
First, all the Palm users immediately got together and beamed all their contact info to each other. The Pocket PC users mostly didn't know how to do it, beaming was difficult and the handhelds were generally larger and less comfortable to use and even the Microsoft people on the handheld team didn't tend to have theirs with them.
Second, getting the mail set up on the LAN they were demoing on was really hard. By the second try people were saying things like "this isn't supposed to be rocket science, and besides, we're all supposed to be rocket scientists".
Third, the handwriting recognition was clumsy. It required a lot more strokes and a lot more tries to reliably recognise text, compared to Graffiti.
The really amazing thing, the thing that made me a total fan of Beth Goza and Derek Brown was thet the next version of the Pocket PC software actually fixed all these problems. Not all the changes were improvements, and not all the problems we pointed out were fixed, but so many of them were I was stunned. In fact, since Palm replaced Graffiti with Jot the Pocket PC does a better job of implementing Graffiti than Palm OS does.
Unfortunately, while they made many changes the Pocket PC still has all the deeper flaws that I wrote about back then. Oh well, this isn't about the Pocket PC. This is about Microsoft.
What was key with the PPCWB shindig is that Microsoft set up a two-way discussion with us, and didn't try and control what we said in it or to other people. This wan't an "Astroturf" campaign, it was a real engagement with the community, and they got a huge win out of NOT creating a conduit for synthetic adulation.
Microsoft's done it once. Can they do it again?
And I am not even a Mac user...
A most overlooked advantage to owning a computer is if they foul up there's no law against wacking them around a bit.
So, what are Microsoft thinking bloggers should write about?
"WOW I JUST SAW THIS NEW UI AND LONGHORN LOKS SO COL AND IT WIL KIK APLAS BUTT SO HARD!11!1!!1 WTF DID U HAAR ABOUT TEH NEW COOL DOT NET TECHS!!111!!1 WHAT F3ATURAS THERE PLANNIG?????!!?? OMG I HAEV NO IEDA YET BUT IMM SURA ITL B AEWSOM31111 OMG WTF"
Beware: In C++, your friends can see your privates!