back to article Microsoft's canceled 'Project Brazil' took aim at Amazon, eBay

Microsoft recently considered building its own online marketplace to compete with the likes of Amazon and eBay, but has since abandoned the plans, sources claim. The effort, known within Redmond as "Project Brazil", would have seen the company create an e-commerce hub that would have played host to a variety of retailers and …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    successful as its rival's, and Redmond's -> successful as its rivals', and Redmond's

    1. Gannon (J.) Dick
      Happy

      Point of order ...

      When you are your own worst enemy, you have only one rival and in the Retail Business, many peers.

  2. Captain DaFt

    "Project Brazil apparently just wasn't the right knife to slice it with. "

    Or, more likely, MS is too hamfisted to be allowed to handle a knife?

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "The e-commerce features would have been baked into a future version of Windows"

    Windows gets hacked or a virus and starts ordering on your behalf. I'm sure users would have loved that.

    1. Fred Flintstone Gold badge

      It strikes me that Windows has turned from Microsoft's major selling point into a potential boat anchor on anything they touch. They have bought in some seriously good products over time (Visio, for example), and instead of enhancing the product and learning lessons from them they butchered looks, functionality and eventually relevance to any business.

      For Microsoft's sake I hope they will eventually learn that the best customer is one that WANTS to buy a product, not one that buys the product because they are not left with a choice. I know that is a different mindset, but seeing just how much gets ruined in the pursuit of client lock-in and how much value gets lost in the process I think it's a lesson that MS needs to learn urgently.

      That is, if the man at the top lets it happen. As long as Ballmer is afraid of his own shadow instead of knowing that it's pretty much irrelevant what anyone can do in his management team given his boatload of shares I fear the only way is down. That wouldn't make me sorry for the company as such, but there are a lot of people whose livelihood is associated with the company - and that *does* matter.

      Building ecommerce is IMHO a classic example of a need to play nice with others - interoperability (remember that magic word from when the Internet started?) is critical if you want others to join..

  4. CCCP
    Facepalm

    People buy stuff - let's make money...

    What's next? "People, like us, crap all the time - we already have a #1 software business, can we get in to that #2 business?"

  5. ChrisM

    Not News

    Company investigates new way of making money then decides not to enter market as the commercials don't stack up...

    Film at 11...

  6. Richard 12 Silver badge

    Abuse monopoly much?

    I suspect this was probably dropped on legal advice.

    The EU would have loved getting its hands on a few billion Microsoft dollars, and even the USA would have had trouble justifying not prosecuting.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Perhaps they took a look at the news in Brazil this week....

    ...and followed the lead of the politicians there in rolling back the transport hikes in an effort to stop the nationwide protests. M$ is all about u-turns now, so really there's really no new news here...

  8. Buzzword

    Ubuntu got there first

    This sounds suspiciously like Ubuntu's desktop search reaching into Amazon.

    1. Fred Tourette
      Alert

      Re: Ubuntu got there first

      Hmmm.... Now that you mention it. But at least I could turn that off with Ubuntu.

  9. Steve Davies 3 Silver badge
    Coat

    Obligatory

    Perhaps Balmer didn't want a 'Brazillian'?

    Coat, gone

  10. Shane8
    Headmaster

    ahhhhh

    "canceled" --> "cancelled"

    grammar nazi out!

    1. Robert Helpmann??
      Childcatcher

      Re: ahhhhh

      "canceled" --> "cancelled"

      grammar nazi out!

      Spelling ≠ Grammar

      Grammar Nazi out! <-- Grammar fail (CAPITALIZATION)

      Extra points for self-invocation of Godwin's law.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Trillion not billion

    Ecommerce Sales Topped $1 Trillion for First Time in 2012

    http://www.emarketer.com/Article/Ecommerce-Sales-Topped-1-Trillion-First-Time-2012/1009649

  12. VinceH

    Optional

    Imagine how annoying it would be if they integrated our old friend the paperclip with it, and had it running in the background.

    *shivers*

    1. beep54
      Happy

      Re: Optional

      And, of course, called it Bob as Brazil was just too obvious.

  13. kain preacher

    To bad

    I'm not exactly a fan of MS, but they are one of the few folks that could challenge ebay.

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