Microsoft wants more competitors...
in prison!

Summary: Microsoft's presence on the Web continues to decline; two Microsoft lobbies stalked again

ACCORDING TO SOME search engine figures (there are several contradictory ones, including bogus ones from Microsoft), the bribery Microsoft offered did not work as its market share slides further down.

Microsoft's share of Internet searches in the U.S. fell to a 12-month low according to Comscore's report of Internet search queries for February.

Microsoft is now relying on Yahoo's Bartz selling out to her former partner, Steve Ballmer.

It's not just search where Microsoft is headed nowhere. It is the same in accompanying on-line units like advertising and analytics. We've already mentioned AdCenter Analytics getting the guillotine treatment and it becomes evident that Microsoft will continue losing billions of dollars on-line until or unless something changes radically. Here is IDG's report on the latest cost-cutting closure:

Microsoft on Thursday said it will discontinue its adCenter Analytics service at the end of the year, and it appears that the company does not plan to replace it.

Also from IDG, it turns out that Hotmail had a considerable downtime.

Microsoft scrambled to fix a global outage that hit its Windows Live Hotmail service for several hours on Thursday.

Alas, this is hardly reported. How come the press makes so much noise when GMail goes down but it's almost radio silence when the same happens to Hotmail? It's worth adding that Hotmail does not exactly tolerate non-Microsoft platforms or Web browsers [1, 2] and that's not the way to gain market share. Hotmail's market share actually continues to erode, based on metering.

“Hotmail's market share actually continues to erode, based on metering.”What does Microsoft do when it cannot compete based on merit? It tries to sabotage or derail the competition, of course. Remember what Steve Ballmer said about Google when he threw a chair?

Not so long ago we summarised some vicious games that Microsoft had attempted against Google. Microsoft is still trying to turn the law against Google, just as the music industry (conglomerates rather) tries to suffocate Internet radio using changes to US law and Microsoft is trying to harm or illegalise Free software using proliferation of software patents and lawsuits.

Here is a potential anti-Google coalition which was created by Microsoft (there are more). It seems to be disguised as "Privacy Group" and it tried to change the law so as to illegalise Google's existing algorithms. The following report from IDG merely suggests that this group will no longer attempt to change the law.

A Microsoft-led group set up three years ago has backed away from its original goal of pushing for comprehensive U.S. privacy legislation.

Originally, the Consumer Privacy Legislative Forum was set up to bring a diverse array of consumer companies, technology vendors and even advocacy groups together and help drive privacy legislation. But now the group has been renamed the Business Forum for Consumer Privacy and is instead being billed as "an organization focused on fostering innovation in consumer privacy governance," according to the group's new mission statement.

This sort of anti-Google lobby was conceived and constructed by the company whose operating system and Web browser are inherently the worst spyware out there and there are back door too. A lot of Windows users do not realise that Microsoft gets a list of each Web page that they visit using Internet Explorer and Windows sends Microsoft a lot of information about what the users does (what s/he installs, clicks on, when s/he reboots, where s/he logs in). So who is Microsoft to promote "privacy"?

Speaking of Microsoft lobbying groups, Microsoft has another one that pretends to serve a different purpose, namely "small businesses" (sometimes "charity" is the disguise of choice). It's the notorious lobby spearheaded by Jonathan Zuck [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8], who has just peddled yet another Microsoft interest in "National Pi Day" (remember the recent "Innovation Day" in Europe, being an ACT/Microsoft lobbying party for software patents?). Anyway, CNET reports:

Jonathan Zuck, president of the Association for Competitive Technology, says he's been quietly celebrating Pi day for the last few years by delivering apple, peach, and blueberry pies to colleagues, congressional staffers, and professional contacts.

Zuck called them "lighthearted reminders about the importance of math and science education," adding "this year we decided to put together an effort to see if we could use this as a mechanism to increase awareness for math and science education."

The idea of improving math and science education is thoroughly bipartisan and backed by major tech companies including Microsoft and Intel.

Interesting. Wherever Microsoft goes, Zuck follows^*, and vice versa. And in this case he must be promoting the Abramoff visas which Intel and Microsoft worked so hard for. They must pretend that Americans are stupid and cannot cope with the sciences so that Microsoft can carry on giving the finger to congressmen who protest discrimination, even treason. ⬆ ______ ^*He has reportedly met Bill Gates personally and he has fought Free software viciously over the past month [1, 2, 3, 4, 5].