Microsoft is very eager to build an offensive against the Google threat. M$ usually follows the consume relevant businesses axiom to compete. If they need to build an offensive in the imaging area, for instance, M$ would try to acquire someone like Adobe. Okay, so they probably would go after a smaller competitor, but you get the point. Their latest acquisition centers on a controversial company – Claria. Claria produced the infamous Gator software. Gator is a charm. It entices users to install it because it can act as a password database. But Gator, which should be renamed Gator-inside-a-Trojan-Horse, would send website visit information back to Claria. It would also cover up advertising on websites with its own. So, if a company had purchased advertising on a web site, a person visiting the site with Gator installed on his/her machine would actually see Gator advertising. Does that sound unethical? M$ better step very lightly here. Growing anti-M$ sentiment could get even worse if this move is solidified. If M$ were to acquire Claria, what would this say about M$’s business philosophy? I think it would reinforce exactly what the above image makes fun of – and at any cost.
Microsoft are scared of every threat.
Hey Paul, I also wrote about this on my Yahoo 360 Blog. You can read it here and a roundup here. Paul: Do you want a Yahoo 360 Invite?
Hey Alex. Thanks for dropping in. Nice write up about this debacle – and good content on the other posts. Thanks for the 360 invite, but I’m good for now.