Why Pamela Anderson can't beat Google
Need more examples? Here are commercials from MSN, Yahoo, and Ask.com. (I found them using Google and YouTube, a Google-owned video-hosting site.) Do any of them articulate a reason to switch search engines?
Microsoft does a victory dance on Sun's head
Redmond's biz-dev gorillas have strong-armed Sun Microsystems into bundling the MSN toolbar as an optional add-on to Sun's Java downloads in the US. What does the Silverlight-powered toolbar have to do with Java? Nothing! That's the genius of it.A dozen years ago, Microsoft broke Sun's run-anywhere Java technology,…
longtailwagsthevalley
Microsofties who want to make money on the Web without the hassle of actually working at Microsoft have been jumping on board Yahoo's sinking ship. Today's best commenter, longtailwagsthevalley, talks about the game of musical chairs:
Microsoft can't even kill a website properly
From online chatter, it was rumored that Microsoft was going to shutter its 13-year-old Web forum site, MSN Groups. It's now confirmed: Microsoft is ditching MSN Groups because it's launching a new product, Windows Live Groups. But you can't upgrade. Rather, Microsoft wants you to "migrate" to Multiply, yet another…
Microsoft reshuffles search again
Yusuf Mehdi, a longtime Microsoft dealmaker (read: geek who looks good in a tie), is now running marketing and product management for MSN and search. But there's still no one in charge of Microsoft's entire portfolio of Web businesses. [BoomTown]
MSN exec Jeff Dossett actually not crazy enough to join Yahoo
Earlier, BoomTown reported that MSN exec Jeff Dossett would leave the company and possibly soon join Yahoo, where his longtime friend and fellow Microsoft alumna Joanne Bradford already works. Not true, says a Microsoft flack, who tells us: "Jeff Dossett is leaving his position as MSN’s US Executive Producer to seek…
You don't have to be crazy to join Yahoo right now — it just helps
Earlier this year, MSN exec Jeff Dossett climbed to the summit of Mount Everest in order to bring attention to the problem of AIDS and HIV in Africa. But now he's doing something really crazy. Dossett quit Microsoft last week and likely plans to join Yahoo, BoomTown reports. BoomTown's Kara Swisher notes that…
While Yahoo burns, MSN and Hearst cook up food site
Targeting Yahoo again, Microsoft may be abandoning its "Project Granola" plan to grow its online presence organically, but that doesn't mean ignoring food altogether. Microsoft's MSN and Hearst magazines will partner to create Delish.com, a food and recipe site to be released this fall. Just like Conde Nast's…
A good place for a Yahoo-less Microsoft to start: Pick a brand and stick to it
If buying Facebook doesn't work out, Microsoft plans to compete on the Web by growing "organically." Bill Gates said that means search advancements, more marketing and lots of meetings. Lots of meetings. But here's what those meetings ought to be about: unifying Microsoft's online branding. Check out the screenshots…
Microsoft demotes poached Ask.com CEO
Steve Berkowitz is out as senior vice president of Microsoft's Online Services Group, BoomTown reports. In April 2006, Microsoft lured Berkowitz away from Ask.com, where he was CEO, and charged him with running MSN's ad sales, marketing, and business development. Yep, all the stuff that's failed bad enough that…
Microsoft continues to lose money online
MSN and Microsoft's other Internet ventures are a sizeable business: $863 million in the most recent quarter. CBNC's Jim Goldman calls the quarter a "stunner." Perhaps, if he meant stunningly bad. Microsoft's growth rate is flat, Henry Blodget notes. Not counting Microsoft's aQuantive acquisition, it's been growing…
NBC's fall season gets slutty on the Web
Broadcast network NBC has inked promotional deals with almost every major Internet player to distribute the pilot episodes for its new fall lineup. Almost, that is, because it appears to be shunning Google's YouTube online-video site, as well as the News Corp.-owned MySpace. According to The Hollywood Reporter,…
Google's rivals have happy customers — just not enough of them
Competitors' efforts have failed to dent Google's search market share. A survey of customer satisfaction paints a different picture — which just goes to show you that it's not, as Google likes to claim, all about the users. The newly released American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) from the University of…
Microsoft's Web portal runs PC World's rundown of the 25 worst websites — including two owned by Microsoft. [MSN]
Major shakeup at MSN?
We hear there's a big showdown and resulting re-org in the works at MSN, Microsoft's online unit. The conflict has been framed in terms of relative newcomer Steve Berkowitz (of Ask Jeeves fame) versus the resisting remnants of the old online regime, i.e. online senior VP David Cole and his pal Yusuf Mehdi. True or…
Jobless exec haunts MSN offices
Maybe it's my lack of ambition and ability to waste time, but wandering around a company with nothing to do is my idea of a dream job. A tipster from Seattle says MSN VP Michael Rawding (who was supposed to quit after Microsoft shook up MSN) is in this enviable position.
How to boycott Yahoo (and Google. And Ask. And MSN.)
A Reporters Without Borders study concludes that Yahoo is the worst censor among search engines in China. The news comes just a few weeks after UK and Irish journalists urged a Yahoo boycott following CEO Terry Semel's comment that he might be willing to report them all to the Nazis.
Top dog news: Google vs. phone company, MySpace-branded phones, and AOL hangs up
Since you loved it last time, here's what tech's top dogs did this weekend.
F500 news: Child porn puns never grow old
The morning news from our favorite Fortune 500 tech firms:
MSN adCenter is DOA
Microsoft's new ad program is broken right out of the box, according to one user:
