Bing – Not Just a Search Engine, Part of An Entire Propaganda Effort

As I watched NBC this evening (something I don’t usually do, as I find that network devoid of good programming) I watched the NBC Nightly News, and then later, the Brian Williams piece about life at the Whitehouse, I saw the latest Microsoft efforts to engender support from the public.

First, there was another one of the annoying laptop acquisition ads, which only prove that Apple doesn’t make a cheap laptop, nothing more. Then I saw this grandiose advertisement for the best thing since the human brain Bing. Calling it a decision engine is certainly smart, as for the unwashed masses, no direct comparison with Google will be made. After all, Google is a search engine, not a decision engine.

For me , I look and see what I saw before – a poor effort for the purposes for which I use a search tool. It doesn’t do any better than Google at searches, and as I mentioned earlier this week, turning it back on the Microsoft site yields less than satisfactory results.

But I must admit, the marketing is (for the unwashed public) very good. For the thinking person, not so much.

Bing also seems to be insinuating itself into IE6 as the default search provider, but not IE7 or IE8. Probably just a fluke that it was not happening on all of these, or was it? The company certainly can’t be too careful with the EU watching intently.

Another part of the propaganda effort I was seeing is the 1 year subscription to TechNet for qualified applicants, after taking a survey. I jumped on this, as I like to have access, and save money whenever possible. After answering a number of tedious questions (which took quite some time, because apparently they were busy) I was given my access. I got a key for Vista Ultimate 64 – because I needed a 64 bit OS, (and I knew of the poor support for earlier 64 bit efforts,) and this seemed like a good time, so close on the heels of SP2 release, and that it was getting good press.

Not wanting to stay on for a long time, because I was both tired and the site was very slow, I printed out the pertinent information.

Since I had been up all night with my son, I went to sleep, and when I awoke I went back to check on getting a copy of One Note 2003, since I had seen it available.  Surprise! No access. Then I read about the slamming the site got because someone let the cat out of the bag.

I certainly see the problem here, but then the working problem for Microsoft  is whether they will honor something that was offered, and accepted, in good faith. I read about others finding a way to bypass the checks of the system, and see no reason why those should be honored. On the other hand, people like me (and I’m sure there were a large number) who were giving opinions and information to Microsoft should be given the subscription.

If they don’t honor this, they put themselves in a bad light, as if the offer was not to be made, it should not have.

In this time where Microsoft is spending so much to (apparently) gain in the long term, the good will now will translate to dollars later.

Can they, or will they, put off the monetary gains now, to achieve greater gains later? I guess we’ll see, once I stop getting the messages on the TechNet site that says the problem is being investigated.

§

‘

‘

10 is even better!

•