Microsoft Integrating Xbox One Advertising With Kinect To Profile Users For Ads 300
MojoKid writes "When Microsoft reversed its Xbox One DRM policies a few weeks back, there was momentary hope that the company has listened to its customers and understood the features they were asking for. Granted, this was brief. However, with Mattrick gone, there was some hope that maybe the company would reintroduce plans like Family Sharing and put the console back on track. Apparently not. Microsoft's big new feature with Kinect? Advertising. Microsoft plans to use Kinect to make advertisements even more engaging than their current counterparts. In the future, Kinect may offer you a 'Choose Your Own Adventure' style narrative in which you speak commands or give orders to an ad as it's playing to change the final outcome. The other way Microsoft wants to use Kinect is to monitor what's going on in the living room to serve you group-appropriate content, rather than resorting to the plain old method of bombarding you with non-interactive advertising for things you don't care about. Microsoft will likely learn that telling gamers that the Xbox One is an ad-centric experience and attempting to spin it like a positive doesn't actually work."
Great (Score:4, Funny)
And before anyone claims Sony doesn't do this already, you've already got little promotional boxes and ads after you've booted up and automatically logged into your PSN on your PS3.
It gets better (Score:5, Funny)
Slimfast and match.com is gonna be appearing on most I bet.
Don't forget about the possibility of ads from local chiropractors!
It can play the moment you put your back out.
"Hi, this is Kinect Bob. I see you are screaming in agony and prone on the floor, would you like me to contact Dr. Friendly for you? Twitch to the left for YES".
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Sony might "do this already", but difference between my PS3 and my XBox360 is that I loathe how 90% of the stuff on the screen of my XBox360 (upon logging in) are various ads...
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hmmm, i have no idea what you're talking about. When i power mine on it goes to the login screen. Selecting an account brings you to the main menu. I usually go left 3 and down 1 to Netflix. There is no screen of ads to be seen.
Re:Great (Score:5, Informative)
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The default - which some update forced on everyone - is to start with at the PlayStation Store, so you get ads as soon as your PSN account is logged in.
On my PS3 (which is up-to-date on firmware etc.), there is no such page of ads and there never has been. When the PS3 is powered up, it automatically logs me in to PSN. Then it does nothing - just waits at the XMB forever (or until it goes into screensaver mode). Occasionally, just after booting, it may suggest that there should be a firmware update. Occasionally, on starting a previously downloaded title, it may suggest that the title be updated.
There is no "page full of ads", so either you're trolling
Re:Great (Score:5, Informative)
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Really? Well I don't own a PS3, though I did use my sisters for the 3 months I was house sitting for her. And I didn't see ads once, that was 6 mo ago. So perhaps things have changed.
Evil. (Score:5, Informative)
Will not buy.
Re:Evil. (Score:5, Insightful)
Will not buy.
Neither will I.
If there are advertisements, then the hardware and games should be free. If the user is paying for the hardware and games, there should be no advertisements.
I have this distant hope that gamers will learn the lesson taught to us by cable TV. Originally cable TV was ad-free on the basis that you were paying a fee for it. Then ads were introduced and for some reason, viewers tolerated it. They grabbed their ankles and took it just like they typically do, so cable TV ads became firmly entrenched.
Gamers, the same thing will happen to you if you put up with this. There can be no doubt about it.
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Will not buy.
Neither will I.
I have this distant hope that gamers will learn the lesson taught to us by cable TV. Originally cable TV was ad-free on the basis that you were paying a fee for it. Then ads were introduced and for some reason, viewers tolerated it. They grabbed their ankles and took it just like they typically do, so cable TV ads became firmly entrenched.
That's why I limit myself to cable TV packages that only have the local OTA stations (digital reception sucks). I'm not going to pay the cable carrier to show me ads on channels supposedly funded by cable fees, especially when ads are slowly taking up more time (not to mention full-length "infomercials").
Re:Evil. (Score:5, Informative)
His point was that you shouldn't pay for this garbage and then be presented with ads; that's absurd.
So whatever they can do, they will do if the market is OK with it.
And since most people seem to be morons, they'll end up doing pretty much everything.
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I don't know how much you can say the market accepts it for cable. More and more people are cutting the cord
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When? Where?
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The ads are a feature. Based on what the Kinect sees when you forget to turn it to the wall it will know whether to offer you medical services, viagra, penis enhancement pills, cheetos and hot pockets or flavored lube.
Note to self...hot pockets and cheetos flavored lube!
Wii U... (Score:5, Insightful)
Xbox Telescreen (Score:5, Informative)
Microsoft's Skype, has a backdoor for the NSA to do stuff like live surveillance. This came out in the PRISM/CHESS documents.
So your XBox with its dual Kinect cameras sitting on the TV, and its always-on connections to the Internet could well also have an NSA back door to it, like Skype does.
Also from the Blackhat presentation, Skype is obfuscated code and may contain back doors beyond surveillance of calls, e.g. maybe they can turn mic/camera on remotely:
https://www.blackhat.com/presentations/bh-europe-06/bh-eu-06-biondi/bh-eu-06-biondi-up.pdf
It's all very 1984 telescreen
Why? (Score:5, Insightful)
A) Bought the console
B) Bought some games (presumably)
C) Quite possibly bought a gold membership
Now, I can understand something like when you go to the store to have maybe a little promo of "what's new" but beyond that, ads are unacceptable.
Re:Why? (Score:5, Insightful)
You can't buy hardware from Apple/Microsoft (Score:2, Interesting)
Why are there even ads on the Xbox? After all you've:
A) Bought the console
B) Bought some games (presumably)
C) Quite possibly bought a gold membership
Now, I can understand something like when you go to the store to have maybe a little promo of "what's new" but beyond that, ads are unacceptable.
Except you don't buy anything anymore you don't own your xbox...games...service you license them. Suck it up or by an alternative product of which there is many. I have bought an OuYa.
Re:Why? (Score:5, Insightful)
Why do we still have ads on cable TV when it started with none decades ago?
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Depends on your definition of "ad". To me, any kind of "information" about how much I'd love to watch some other show on their program which is thrown at me before, after, in between and at whatever other point they manage to squeeze it in DOES count as an ad.
At the very least once it has been repeated often enough that you can actually speak along to the announcer it's even surpassed the annoyance I usually get out of ads.
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Yeah, I don't get why Hulu+ has ads for paid members. Greedy companies! Gah.
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The answer to both questions is the same: because subscription revenue alone no longer covers the costs of content and distribution. Advertising is why XBL is $50/year for all of the services they provide instead of $200 for fewer services. Or to use a cable TV example, it's why every channel producing scripted content isn't $15/month like HBO.
Which is not to say it's a great outcome, but the public has shown time and time again that they'll accept advertising in exchange for staving off service cost increa
Re:Why? (Score:4, Insightful)
Problem is that all the "services" XBL provided for a fee, Sony provided for free on a PS3.
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Everyone is convinced that earning $500 from a console sale is chump change compared to the pennies they can get from advertising!
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Try typing that question into your Windows 8.1 search bar.
Feedback Loop (Score:5, Interesting)
They play adverts, they monitor the kinect camera, and they can see which ads have an effect and are watched. XBox is an ads mans wet dream. Never mind that its a customers nightmare.
Also the possibilities for profit are endless:
Suppose you are in the UK and have an XBox with Kinect. NSA can legally spy on Brits, so it buys spy time on XBox Kinects to watch a target. Turns on the camera, gets its surveillance data and hey presto, leverage. Maybe a politicians family is in, the son is smoking pot, that's paydirt and you as customer brought the surveillance camera into your own home and wired it up yourself and even pay for the connection to the NSA!
Would Microsoft sell them access? Well it provided live Skype taps, message+voice+video taps on Skype. And Skype must have some business model we can't see to justify its $7 billion price. So yeh, damn right!
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Fascism is by definition profitable for corporations.
Just what I've always wanted! (Score:5, Funny)
When I want a game console, what I actually want are advertisements! And the Xbox One offers interactive advertisements, no less! Sure, you could just play games to get your fill of interactive content, but why play games when you could watch ads? Who plays games, anyway? Certainly not people who buy the Xbox One; they'll be too busy with ads.
Re:Just what I've always wanted! (Score:5, Funny)
Hello, this is the Sarcasm Detector. [slashdot.org] Your post has been flagged as "sarcastic" and will be deleted in 1 minute. If you are receiving this in error, please immediately gesture to your Kinect in a non-sarcastic manner. Thank you, and now a word from our sponsors before your game begins.
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*gives manual binary-4 salute*
Non-sarcastic enough?
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There's only one gesture I can think of doing to the kinect in this case.
Heres a command.... (Score:2, Insightful)
GO FUCK YOURSELVES MICROSOFT.
XBox One = Marketing platform (Score:5, Insightful)
I'll say it again:
The primary purpose of the XBox One is to be a platform for selling ads. On the one hand, publishers no longer need to solicit for static advertising in games, now they can have Microsoft be the entire advertising platform. It's like embedding a Google ad on your blog and collecting the revenue, only now on a HUGE scale. On the other hand, no longer do advertisers need to pay a ton for static ads on pre-releae titles, hoping that the ad retains enough relevance to be beneficial to their business. Publishers win, Microsoft wins, and advertisers win. Welcome to the future!
Kinect is all about generating advertising hints. It just is. There's no other sane reason why it supposedly cannot be turned off. It's there to collect hints on your environment, feed them to the Bing ad platform, and generate in-game ads as a result.
The always-on, regularly dial-home connectivity scheme was all about exchanging advertising hints for ads. Microsoft can capture advertisers by guaranteeing nearly real-time freshness of their advertising.
And lastly, the "co-process in the cloud" is all about advertising. Polygons aren't going to be rendered in the cloud, ad textures are. Turn that off and I bet there will be a lot of empty textures in just about every XB1 game that comes out, from AAA titles to $5 throw-aways.
Microsoft is selling you to the advertisers. It's just as simple as that.
Parent speaks the truth (Score:5, Informative)
Yup. MS said so themselves.
Xbox One built for ads from the ground up [sticktwiddlers.com]
Wonderful. (Score:5, Funny)
So will I have to run in place for ten seconds to skip a weight loss ad and play my game?
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Why do I think that most geeks would rather spend 10 hours trying to find a way around it than 1 hour doing it?
Of course it's because it is invasive and to make a point about privacy. No other reason could possibly exist.
It's all about the camera. (Score:2)
It's all about the camera. The one in your living-room. Considering who Microsoft is working with these days, do you really want a camera in your living-room?
Interactive Ads? (Score:2)
Most negative publicity... (Score:3)
Has there been -anything- positive that has come out of the Xbox One's pre-launch that hasn't just been damage control?
Idiocracy... (Score:3)
Here's the new screen layout:
http://codinghorror.typepad.com/.a/6a0120a85dcdae970b0120a86dd2e5970b-pi [typepad.com]
To some degree we are getting there (it's worse on the XBox 360):
http://cdn-static.zdnet.com/i/r/story/70/00/002993/original/w8rtm-windows-8-start-620x.jpg?hash=MwZ2ZmL2AQ [zdnet.com]
And Mike Judge is a god in my mind: Idiocracy, Office Space (I wore a suit for a few years early on) and Beavis and Butthead.
Anyway, I have to get back to Aww my Balls. Stop interrupting me. You broke my apartment.
Huh! I just got it (Score:4, Interesting)
Looking at a still photo of the XBox One screen just made me realize... it finally dawned on me where Microsoft got the idea for the start screen tiles on XBox and Windows 8.
It's the Wii. All they've done is let you have some of the boxes be bigger than the others - but it's basically the Wii's interface that Nintendo released in 2006.
Even the ads. The Wii used the boxes for the Shop to advertise stuff you could buy.
Steve Ballmer is in charge (Score:2)
Need I say more?
What ad really need (Score:5, Insightful)
Can anybody tell me... (Score:2)
Why does my Xbone keep serving me ads for lotion and tissues? Surely it can see I already have plenty at hand.
You must watch the ads (Score:4, Insightful)
The Xbox One recognizes your face. It knows if you're watching. They're in a position to insist that you watch the ads. Leave during an ad, and everything pauses until you get back to finish watching the ad.
"It sees you when you're sleeping. It knows when you're awake. It knows if you've been bad or good."
Xbox One = NSA spy device (Score:2, Informative)
Let's get this straight, for those of you still too thick to understand what Microsoft is doing.
- the console refuses to function UNLESS the Kinect sensor system is fully operational
- attempts to cover the Kinect camera lenses or point Kinect at a wall cause the console to immediately pester the user to 'recalibrate' Kinect
- Microsoft insists that every app and game uses Kinect input to a certain degree, even if this means an optional input mechanism for menu screens. There are ZERO games and apps that will
Do not want (Score:3)
Do not want with a fierce burning passion.
Kill Yourself (Score:2)
I'm fine with this as long as there are enough alternate scenes so that at any point in time I can say, "Kill yourself." and all on-screen characters will suddenly find creative ways to do so.
This would be endlessly entertaining.
I would be telling my friends which commercial to watch and when to say something.
Maybe that's the future of commercials: viral Easter Egg hunts.
(No, I don't actually think this is a ad integration is a good thing.)
Can't you just put it in a sock? (Score:5, Insightful)
Apparently it needs to be connected for hte xbox to work. But can't you just put a sock over it? Congrats MS.. you get a first hand look at what the inside of my sock looks like... 24/7.
The Orwellian parallel is the TVs in 1984 which couldn't be turned off and could spy on you. People in the book used to put curtains over the TVs when they weren't using them. But they couldn't turn them off. They'd just sit there all day and all night... and you had to put a curtain over them if you wanted any sleep. Do the same with this stupid connect device. Put a sock over it.
Or do the really bright thing and don't buy it. MS is not providing what the consumer wants. This is not an honest product.
It's not advertising (Score:4, Funny)
It's not advertising, it's a new form of achievements.
* Watched 100 ads in 3 hours
* Clicked on 50 ads
* Said "Xbox ONE, search for pizza"
Re:This is... (Score:5, Funny)
I'd be okay with this on the condition that the kinect interprets the middle finger as a "skip ad" gesture
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Ironically, I know of some people who would buy the Kinect if that was a feature.
Re:This is... (Score:5, Funny)
What?!? It's not a bug, it's a feature!
Re:This is... (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:It is better than buying used games (Score:5, Insightful)
and TODAY nobody is bad-mouthing Steam after over a decade of DRM-encumbered operation.
I am. Plenty of other people still do. So, you're wrong.
Re:It is better than buying used games (Score:5, Informative)
I have no problem with Steam. They actually seem to realize that digital delivery means the customer can save money. When I'm buying fairly recent games for 60% off or whatever, I don't really care if I can't resell them. Steam makes purchasing and playing games pretty cheap and easy, so I like it.
Origin, is another story. Steam works precisely because it's publisher-agnostic. Origin will never gain that momentum because EA is just using it as a way to increase profits by cutting out the costs of physical distribution, without passing any savings to the customer.
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Steam is actually pretty crappy, but its better than some DRM schemes that publishers have come up with since you can't just swap disks like you've always been able to with console games.
Re: It is better than buying used games (Score:5, Informative)
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People were not complaining about selling games with the DRM an, they were complaining about not being able to play them.
That's exactly what DRM is designed to do. By putting up with it, you are subsidising your own restrictions.
Anything else amounts to expecting the gaming corporations to act against their own profit motives. If they can tempt you into accepting unreasonable restrictions with the latest shiny, they will. If they can either kill off or control the used games markets, they will. These things make them more money. It's just that simple.
Anyone who purchases DRM'ed titles and complains about this needs
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Anything else amounts to expecting the gaming corporations to act against their own profit motives. If they can tempt you into accepting unreasonable restrictions with the latest shiny, they will. If they can either kill off or control the used games markets, they will. These things make them more money. It's just that simple.
Anyone who purchases DRM'ed titles and complains about this needs to take a long look into the mirror.
There are two separate issues, you are not pointing at the same thing I am.
Assume I purchase a game and the media has DRM, like a CD-Key. When I upgrade my device, especially to the same manufacture/design/model in an upgraded version there is an expectation that I can play that game on the new device. It's no different than upgrading my PC and expecting my old stuff works.
In that respect, and with that type of DRM most people have no issues with DRM. It should also be understood that upgrades should onl
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Re:It is better than buying used games (Score:5, Informative)
> How often are people screwed by selling their used games for pennies on the dollar?
Umm its a used item, its not gold or an investment. I want to buy a used game as cheap as I can get it, that's all that matters. I think you're confused on the used marker thingy, its about buying second hand items "cheap" not selling them for 90% of the retail sticker price.
DRM at a cost (Score:2)
This model seems to work on Steam and TODAY nobody is bad-mouthing Steam after over a decade of DRM-encumbered operation.
I am against DRM on steam(and am far from being alone)...and many include myself bad mouth it. I would rather all my games were DRM free. I buy from steam because they are *cheap*...in my mind disposable, because I am prepared to pay less money from a game I license instead of own(yes I am playing hard and fast with English what of it).
The difference is DRM on the xbox is that games are $60...and come on physical media.
The bottom line is this has nothing to do with the article in question, which is about sp
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Yes, that's right, my post really had little to do with the article in question.
Re:It is better than buying used games (Score:5, Interesting)
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...it provides consumer protection... by elevating prices...
Reality is so much freakier than drugs...
Man, what is in this shit, man?
Mostly Maui Waui man, but it's got some Labrador in it.
Re:It is better than buying used games (Score:5, Interesting)
From the Wikipedia article regarding Steam (my emphasis):
"Steam collects and reports anonymous metrics of its usage, stability, and performance.[53] With the exception of Valve's hardware survey,[54] most collection occurs without notifying the user or offering an opt-out. Some of these metrics are available publicly, such as what games are being played or statistics on player progress in certain games.[55] Valve has also used information from these statistics to justify implementing new features in Steam, such as the addition of a defragmentation option for game caches.[56] Valve announced on July 15, 2010 that in conjunction with collecting hardware information in Steam's opt-in hardware surveys, they would begin collecting a list of the user's installed software as well.[57]"
I don't bad-mouth Steam/Valve--I simply don't do business with them. Never have, never will. I suspect I am not alone in that regard.
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If you're curious, my state passed a law over a decade ago that totally killed PC software rentals and used sales.
By the way, the new 'features' of xbox v3 has me totally committed to buying something else, probably a ps4.
Re:It is better than buying used games (Score:5, Informative)
This model seems to work on Steam and TODAY nobody is bad-mouthing Steam after over a decade of DRM-encumbered operation.
Nobody in US where consumer protection means protecting corporations from users. Germany is suing Valve over steam no resale policy, they did it after landmark case versus Oracle that reinforced right to resale software..
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I am not sure why they can not do both, the issue I had with the DRM was that is was not possible to play a game if your internet was down for more than 24 hours, and I use my console on vacation allot where there is no internet. So why did they not let you choose if you want to use DRM you have to have the internet up every 24 hours, if your internet is down, stick the disk in the system to play the game just like you always have and it works while the disk is in.
I must be missing something.
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Well, at least last time I checked there wasn't a "Steam Only" game, aside of maybe some of Valve's own. And even there I'm fairly certain you can get a boxed version somehow that you needn't tie to some Steam account. And if everything fails and you want to resell your games, there's always the option to create an account for that game you plan to resell only.
I doubt I have that much of a choice with XB1 games.
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You only forget to mention who "consumers" are. They are companies that sell ads and game publishers.
As for the people who are typically referred to as "customers" by the rest of us, your type of shill usually refers to them as "product".
P.S. There are plenty of us who badmouth steam over DRM.
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How often are people screwed by selling their used games for pennies on the dollar?
Never.
First, you have no inherent right to recoup your costs. So, if you fail to do that, you're not getting screwed. Second, some used games sell for more than pennies on the dollar.
The XBOX One scheme actually does two things: it provides consumer protection in the used game market by elevating prices
What? That's not how it works, because no right of consumers is being protected here.
and it appears to also provide minimal (and nominal) revenue for publishers when a game is resold.
IOW, it is just another example of rent-seeking, which does not advance humanity in any way. Indeed, it retards progress by adding incentives to not progress, since you can continue to profit from old work done. But First Sale law is quite clea
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Why not? I can very well agree with it.
DRM devalues a product. It does take away some rights I usually enjoy when I buy something, like being able to resell it, being able to use it whenever and however I want to and so on. One can agree with this or one cannot, but the very least I would expect when I am supposed to put up with additional hardships and less usability is a reduction in price. And that's exactly what he is talking about.
When you reduce the value of a product and at the same time reduce its p
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Why not? I can very well agree with it.
Well, I can't. I'm fundamentally opposed to DRM, so even if someone were to offer me a DRM-infested game at a cheap price, I would not buy it.
Re:Bing, Bing, Bing! (Score:5, Informative)
Only old people use Bing. And only then because likely they confused it with Bingo.
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In Soviet Russia Bing searches you!
Re:Bing, Bing, Bing! (Score:5, Insightful)
Do we really need Soviet Russia anymore? I was under the impression we already surpassed them by leaps and bounds when it comes to domestic spying and keeping the population under control.
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Better?
Re:Bing, Bing, Bing! (Score:5, Funny)
Fine, in Fascist America, Bing searches you!
FTFY
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Bing image search doesn't enforce safe-search if you decide to turn it off (Google doesn't allow you to globally do this anymore) and has a pretty decent interface. The rest is not helpful, but image search is.
Nudge nudge, wink wink, say no more!
Mark Penn (Score:5, Interesting)
Meet Mark Penn http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/15/technology/microsoft-battles-google-by-hiring-political-brawler-mark-penn.html?_r=1& [nytimes.com] This *cough* shitslinger of joys like scroogled is also in charge of include a blind taste test, Coke-versus-Pepsi style, of search results from Google and Microsoft’s Bing.
Mr. Penn was put in charge of innocently titled “strategic and special projects” its nice that his work bulldozing enemies of the Clintons is now but to work slinging shit at Google.
Ironically this is another article about Bing being shoved down peoples throats in another Duopoly rather than competing on old fashioned things like competition. Perhaps Microsoft Time and Money would be spent serving its hostages.
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It certainly looks that way. [forbes.com]
The article contains a quote offering a nice reminder of who Microsoft is really working for:
The goal, [Microsoft general manager David] Pann says, is to give advertisers access to consumers across a broader variety of their daily activities, not just when they’re overtly conducting a search.
I suppose that broader variety also includes gaming or watching movies.
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Think of the porn (Score:2)
Oh come on
Think of the PORN millions of xboxes could produce... for free!
We'll have a whole new category for porn now and you too can access is for $10 a month on xboxkinection.com
For a reasonable fee of $50 per year AND $5 per message Micro-One-Dating will also put you in touch with single attractive dating prospects!
Ignore the SQUICK we cut to the QUICK! Why stalk the girl of your dreams and get arrested peeping through her window when we can provide you with high resolution full colour video - and NOW we
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I know, that makes it so funny to make them have to do it.
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I think patenting giving this "the finger" would make you insanely rich instead.
I could somehow see people even paying a licensing fee just to do it.
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The NSA can now watch what your doing in the living room.
I pity the agent who has to watch this.