Microsoft Officially Acquires Massive 32
Confirming cloudy information from a week or two back, Microsoft has officially acquired Massive, Inc. From the article: "According to the official statement, Microsoft also has begun exploring how to apply Massive technology to incorporate dynamic advertising into other online environments, such as Windows Live and MSN, and to make it available on the adCenter advertising platform. 'We are committed to building an advertiser network that serves a wide spectrum of needs,' said Kevin Johnson, co-president of the Platforms & Services Division at Microsoft. 'Our acquisition of Massive will expand opportunities for advertisers and enable connection to a broader audience of digital consumers.'"
Will they put ads in the next version of Windows? (Score:5, Funny)
It'll be a hit, I can see it now.
Re:Will they put ads in the next version of Window (Score:4, Funny)
I think XP does this already. Unless I disable them with TweakUI, I keep getting pop-up ads in the form of 'speech bubbles' about how there are unused icons on my desktop or there are updates ready for my computer. I don't know what product they're trying to sell, but I'm not interested in "one or more wireless networks" being detected.
Re:Will they put ads in the next version of Window (Score:5, Insightful)
Some things are funny because they're true. Unfortunately, this is something that's unfunny because it's true.
We all know that if they had a checkbox in the install program that said "Click here to have exclusive special offers delivered to your desktop!", an awful lot of people would click there...
Re:Will they put ads in the next version of Window (Score:3, Interesting)
That said, given they're apparently not allowed to bundle it could be used to put a bunch of possible 3rd party media players into an ad and say "These are pretty good". Then they could include Media Player and get away with it.
Re:Will they put ads in the next version of Window (Score:2)
(I use the quote marks because it is a feature only insomuch as death is a feature of the plague, it is indeed an intended facet but one which you would do almost anything to avoid)...
if you look at themes on XP you can only get more b
How they will put this in. (Score:3, Insightful)
Click here to purchase the Aero upgrade from the MS website
Click here to enable Ad Sponsored Areo for free (Ads will appear in the background as widgets)"
They make money either way, people get an option of getting the pretty eye candy for "free" via ad sponsoring.
Misguiding headline (Score:2)
Re:Misguiding headline (Score:2)
Re:Misguiding headline (Score:1)
Talk about control (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Talk about control (Score:2)
You know.... (Score:1)
Re:You know.... (Score:1)
Re:You know.... (Score:1)
well that still ranks right up there with Duke Nukem, it's set in the current year or a couple years ahead. Neither of them have seen the light of day in 10 years (granded Fourever has only been for PC and hasn't jumped ship 5 times).
I honestly wouldn't be suprised if they did it with H
Acquires? (Score:2)
Yup, massive (Score:4, Funny)
Have you seen the disk requirements for Vista [msversus.org]? They already know how to apply massive technology!
(I apologize for the terrible joke... couldn't resist)
Re:Yup, massive (Score:1)
Re:Yup, massive (Score:1)
I love the rest of the system recommendations, too. "GPU 3x faster than anything on the market today" is a cute one. Almost as good as "dual core 6ghz CPU".
MS makes another mistake... (Score:3, Interesting)
If the user getting content for free because of an ad, then users will put up with it, as they have historically done on TV; they may skip the ads, but they don't necessarily complain about it too much because they perceive it as part of a deal.
If the ad makes the content more real (e.g. ads on the side of football pitches) don't think many people would object.
BUT - if the user IS paying for the content, and its price is not coming down because of the the ad, and it's not adding to the realism of the content - then you have a situation where users will start increasingly to rebel at being forced to watch ads, and cease buying products because of them.
You might say that corporate greed will win - but this is not necessarily in the ad's favour. As I recall, someone from EA (I think in an IV in Edge magazine) recently pointed out that their revenue from ads is under 2% of their total revenue. They are not going to risk failing to sell Halo X for $XXX because they want to squeeze in a couple of ads which will generate a tiny amount of extra revenue.
However, the ad industry desperately wants to beleive that in-game product placement has a huge future. That does not mean it's going to happen. But some ad guys have clearly caught Microsoft's ear. Time will tell if MS wins from this purchase. Personally, I doubt it.
Obligatory Invader Zim reference (Score:2)
Why oh why... (Score:1)
Re:Why oh why... (Score:2)