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Microsoft Officially Acquires Massive
Confirming cloudy information from a week or two back, Microsoft has officially acquired Massive, Inc. From the article: "According to the official statement, Microsoft also has begun exploring how to apply Massive technology to incorporate dynamic advertising into other online environments, such as Windows Live and MSN, and to make it available on the adCenter advertising platform. 'We are committed to building an advertiser network that serves a wide spectrum of needs,' said Kevin Johnson, co-president of the Platforms & Services Division at Microsoft. 'Our acquisition of Massive will expand opportunities for advertisers and enable connection to a broader audience of digital consumers.'"
I'm betting that MS will try to eke out extra money from Vista by making annoying ads pop up periodically, at least in the cheap versions. Then they'll market it as a feature, saying that Vista comes with as much as adware pre-installed as XP users needed six months to accumulate.
It'll be a hit, I can see it now.
...by making annoying ads pop up periodically...
I think XP does this already. Unless I disable them with TweakUI, I keep getting pop-up ads in the form of 'speech bubbles' about how there are unused icons on my desktop or there are updates ready for my computer. I don't know what product they're trying to sell, but I'm not interested in "one or more wireless networks" being detected.
Then they'll market it as a feature, saying that Vista comes with as much as adware pre-installed as XP users needed six months to accumulate.
Some things are funny because they're true. Unfortunately, this is something that's unfunny because it's true.
We all know that if they had a checkbox in the install program that said "Click here to have exclusive special offers delivered to your desktop!", an awful lot of people would click there...