Microsoft courts customers for search help Microsoft is turning to customers for advice on how to build an online advertising platform - four years after it started. The company has announced its Publisher Leadership Council, whose members will consult with Microsoft on the construction of a "next-generation" advertising platform called PubCenter. Microsoft announced …
Yet again, Microsoft is asking "customers" to design its applications. Applications it hopes will be purchased by "users". By "users" it means "you and me". By customers it means something else.
Microsoft is struggling because users are discovering that its products work increasingly badly, are increasingly unreliable, and increasingly less trustworthy. To us.
Which is what you would expect if they were designed by people who are trying to do things "to" us, instead of "for" us. People such as Microsoft identifies as "customers". Really: anyone who spends more than 100 million on software...
It's like allowing a real-estate salesman to design your house. A car salesman to design your car. Or a church to design your sex life.
Oh wait... They do! And we don't want the result! Funny that...
"Microsoft is turning to customers for advice on how to build an online advertising platform"
My advice? Don't bother. Nobody with a brain and money to spend pays any attention to advertising these days. Not just online, mind, I mean ANY advertising.
Note the "and money to spend" ... Sure, you'll get the mouth-breathers clicking on ads, but none of them have two quarters^Wha'pennies to rub together these days. At some point, probably sooner rather than later, the advertisers are going to notice this and stop paying GooMSNoo! for ad placement. The market is going to tank. Mark my words ...
Someone finally grasped the problem! Halleluja! Trust is the problem, as in 'trusted partner'. You have to ask yourself, why won't people use Microsoft's search? Because we can't TRUST the search results. Because Microsoft always has a hidden agenda, in everything they do.
What can they do to change this situation? I couldn't say really. Looking at it from my own perspective, what could convince me to use Microsoft's search? - nothing -. It's just never going to happen.
Tell your customers that you're not Evil and then squeeze 'em 'til the pips squeak.
Change the algorithm that siphons cash out of their wallets whenever you think that they've worked out how to get the best out of it.
Tell your users that you don't game the system, while gaming the system to keep your cash cows^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hpaying customers happy.
But all this is an "irrelevance", of course.....
Sorry but Microsoft can go play with themself. In the last two years their customer service has went from poor to pathetic. They must be the only organisation who listens to the customer then actively ignores them.
Their licensing has went from unreasonable to extortion.
Their kneecap of unlicensed system affecting licensed systems by accident is the final straw.
They didn't listen over Vista (now rebranded for the dumb asses out there) - why change their corporate policy now!!
Must be losing customer
Yours sincerely,
New Linux User
... then the first rule is ...
NO FLASH
NO animations
No Silverlight
No Blinking
No Annoyances.
Using any of the above almost guarantees that your users will adblock them. If you want people to see your adverts, its absolutely essential to stick to STATIC content that won't annoy your readers.
> What does Friday have to do with anything?
You are new here, aren't you? Stay, read, learn, then type.
>Beer now please, preferably an IPA
Lagunitas Maximas at elbow ...
>or belgian wheat. :D
Wheat? WHEAT??!?? Surely proper grain isn't THAT expensive in your part of the world?
>Tux, because he drinks like a fish, too
I think you typed "he drinks and likes fish, too". Or something like that.
Icons are for AOLers.
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