Re: A masterpiece
What happened is that Microsoft saw the writing on the wall. They know their cash cow is dead, so they've copied google and moved to the 'free newspaper' model.
You'll remember AOL doing this a few years back, when you had to use their CDs as coasters because the rubbish bins were full already. As you can see, this was enormously successful for AOL and they're now the biggest thing in the industry again. Or perhaps not.
Does anyone remember when IBM was king ? Nothing lasts forever.