Bonum Certa Men Certa

Another Pillar of the Microsoft Press Falls Over

"I'm a huge fan of guerrilla marketing."

--Joe Wilcox, Microsoft Fan



Summary: Microsoft Watch may be dead; Google carries on rising

MICROSOFT'S ability influence minds will diminish even further. Now it's Joe Wilcox who feels the anguish. He's leaving Microsoft Watch, which dumped Microsoft for Red Hat (GNU/Linux) a few years ago.

With that, there is nothing left to say but goodbye—and thank you.


Microsoft Watch is a Ziff Davis publication and we happen to have evidence to show that it sold out to Microsoft [1, 2]. Could this be the end of Microsoft Watch, which used to be Mary Jo Foley's public space? She escaped to ZDNet, but that too may be at risk of not surviving. Since they are all GNU/Linux-hostile, this is not a bad thing.

Microsoft recently cut its PR budget and together with the demise of The Seattle P-I, it all adds up to decreasing Microsoft influence (although it still owns many news networks).

Another "Microsoft Joe" (not Wilcox), who has been covering Microsoft exclusively at the Seattle P-I, no longer covers just Microsoft and right now he writes about this:

Most-Searched Term on Microsoft’s Live Search Is ... ‘Google'



Microsoft’s Live Search revamp apparently cannot come soon enough. Hitwise data shows that the most commonly searched term on Live Search over the last four weeks has been “Google,” accounting for one percent of all queries. Number two? “Yahoo.”


Google's brand has become very strong, according to this new report from the UK.

The phrase 'I'll just Google it' has helped make the Internet search giant the world's first $100billion dollar brand.

Beating out other household names, from Microsoft to Coca Cola and McDonald's, the company' value of €£68.5billion puts it 25 per cent more valuable than computer software king Microsoft.


If more people rely on the broader Web which offers a decentralised diversity of sources (e.g. using Google), then Microsoft's ability to police its image will degrade. Sadly, it can still censor blogs while the old press is dying (Newspaper Association has just gone Web-only and it's likely that everyone will, except those who fail online like Microsoft Watch).

"Mind Control: To control mental output you have to control mental input. Take control of the channels by which developers receive information, then they can only think about the things you tell them. Thus, you control mindshare!"

--Microsoft, internal document [PDF]



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