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Xenophobia at MSN
July 28, 2006
I had an interesting experience with MSN adCenter the other day that caused me to question the relevancy of MSN adCenter. 
You see MSN has been on the fringe of paid search for quite some time but has recently made the bold move to jump in with both feet. Why??? is a question I frequently ask myself and here is how the conversation goes (and yes, I will admit that I have quite good conversations with myself ;).
Me: Why is Microsoft getting into the paid search arena? I mean with Google and Yahoo already dominating the paid search market....
Myself: It's all about the money stupid. With Google raking in over a billion dollars every quarter MSN just wants a piece of the pie.
I: I think it’s about money but I also think it’s about Microsoft trying to remain a legitimate player and not just fade away.
Me: Hmmmmmm.......both interesting arguments. Microsoft is sitting on a large pile o' cash aren't they? And open source seems the way everything is going?
Myself: Microsoft won't have much cash left if they keep ignoring the EU! Plus with Gates 'retiring' who is going to lead the traditionally xenophobic charge?
I: Personally, I was shocked that MSN AdCenter doesn’t support Firefox!
Me: You’ve got to be kidding me? Of course they wouldn’t support it.
Myself: Yeah, it doesn’t bear the ‘Microsoft Genuine Advantage’ digital license.
Me: No dummy, because instead of working with others MSN is playing the only game the only way they know how to.
I: And that is…….
Me: They make you work with them, that’s different then them working with you.
Myself: Ahhhh, I get it. And because they’ve got loads of cash they just try to do their own thing instead of work with others ala ‘open source’.
Me: Bingo.
I: I wish they would just keep their money out of developing a paid search engine and do something novel like try to make Windows actually work without crashing all the time.
Myself: Yeah, or how about closing down all of the security holes? I think my computer downloads critical updates at least once a week.
I: I wish they would bring back ‘Bob’.
Now there was some useful software.
Me: Okay, Okay, that’s enough. As soon as the conversation degrades to ‘Bob’ it’s time to wrap it up.
Overall, Microsoft needs to do some serious core values analysis. I wonder if they’ve ever heard the saying ‘jack of all trades, master of none’. It sure seems to apply in this case. I think they would do themselves a favor to focus on their majors and forget about the minors. Then again, would we ever really trust Microsoft if they ‘took the red pill’?
All posts by Brent Sharp
posted by Brent Sharp at July 28, 2006 10:45 AM
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Comments
I agree Brent - but I have to say, as someone who spends a lot of time in each major engine's paid programs, Microsoft Adcenter is much better than Yahoo Search Marketing. Their UI is slicker and actually NOT that slow - it's intuitively laid out. Yahoo, even being around a lot longer, is a major pain in the butt to work with. Adcenter is the first MS product in a long while that I've been impressed with.
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