Microsoft To Add Ads To Smart Search

Vanderhoth writes "Today, Microsoft said its advertisers will be able to target users not just on Web search results pages but directly inside Windows Smart Search. David Pann, general manager of Microsoft's Search Advertising Group, said in an interview that advertisers don't have to do additional setup to participate. The Smart Search ads will feature a preview of the websites the ad will send people to, as well as click-to-call info and site links, which are additional links under the main result that direct users deeper into a website to the most likely page they might want."

Comments

Ugh

[UnknowingFool]

While this seems like a good idea to MS and advertisers, I don't want Bing ads when I'm searching on things inside my machine or to let MS know about the searches I'm doing on my own files. I also can't see that enterprises want this feature turned on. For example if you are working on a proposal to expand your company's presence in a particular Asian country next year but can't find the document that you saved earlier, do you want MS to send information to advertisers about expansion in that country? What if they proposal shouldn't be divulged yet to people inside the company much less to people outside of the company.

Re:Ugh

[Todd Knarr]

Worse: where I work we're subject to regulatory requirements about data disclosure. Having an external entity (Microsoft) be made aware of what we're doing before it's officially disclosed is a violation of Federal securities regulations. Having an external entity be made aware of private consumer credit information (which I work with regularly) is a violation of Federal privacy, consumer-protection and banking laws. The day this goes in, there's going to be a directive from Legal come down: this feature must be disabled completely or we must cease using Windows.

Just copying.

[SuricouRaven]

Ubuntu did it first.

Re:Just copying.

[lister king of smeg]

Also, didn't Ubuntu add an option to opt-out of the advertising after the backlash?

yup they did, also they anonymised the searches as i recall from the forbes article a ms exec is quoted as saying;

The goal, is to give advertisers access to consumers across a broader variety of their daily activities, not just when they’re overtly conducting a search.

so they are not only seeing you search but from a detailed analysis of you computer daily usage.
they are literally baking adware and spyware into their core OS.

Re:Douchebags!

[gstoddart]

Even before XBone's DRM clusterfuck, they'd guaranteed I wouldn't buy their next-gen crapbox the moment they put ads on my Xbox dashboard...

Yeah, that was what prompted me to disconnect mine from the network too, and even though they've backed down and require only one-time, I'm still not buying the new one.

But if Microsoft is going to start doing this stuff in the core OS, they're really going to further piss off their customers. The last thing I want is advertising embedded in the OS -- because you pretty much have to conclude the OS is spying on you.

In doing this, Windows has more or less become something you simply can't trust, because those advertising hooks will pretty much be into everything.

HIPAA and many other laws/regulations

[fallen1]

guarantees that Windows 8 / 8.1 will NEVER be utilized inside the medical field. I was already looking to have to explain to my bosses why we should not buy laptops with Windows 8 on them and this just sealed the deal for me -- HIPAA violations start at $50,000 per and go up to $150,000 per. Anything "analyzing" searches on our computer systems or networks is right out.

Thank you, Microsoft, for making my job as an administrator that much easier! It has now become so that recommending Microsoft CAN get you fired.