12.03.09

Gemini version available ♊︎

Microsoft ‘Innovates’ Microblogging, Buys User Accounts, Followers Spoil Google Wave

Posted in Google, Marketing, Microsoft at 7:44 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Noisy miner

Summary: Microblogging is ‘embraced’ by Microsoft, but not exactly in the ethical ways one might expect (or not expect, depending on prior convictions)

ONE of our regulars, who goes by the name of Goblin (he prefers anonymity), has spent the past few months tracking and exposing Microsoft AstroTurfing. It is him, for example, who managed to unmask Andre Da Costa [1, 2], whom Microsoft ‘compensated’ for his promotion of Microsoft, under pseudonyms. Goblin has actually developed software to analyse patterns and help identify those whom he eventually exposes, including AstroTurfers in Twitter.com.

According to Goblin, the Microsoft crowd is ruining Google Wave, which directly competes with almost-analogous Microsoft software.

As more of the Microsoft faithful discover Google Wave we can (IMO) expect more of this behaviour and perhaps highlights an issue which Google need to sort out quickly in respect of features, that being, only the creator of a wave can delete it and users own comments cannot be edited by any other user. Its a shame that there are people so frightened of an alternative to Microsoft that they have to engage in actions like this. Its also a shame that I believe the creator of this wave actually is a Windows 7 user and now they too have had their first experience of the Microsoft faithful.

Goblin also wrote about MSNBC/Microsoft’s acquisition of popular Twitter accounts, such as the case we wrote about yesterday. He adds this to the news about Microsoft ‘stealing’ Twitter’s idea.

Microsoft (masters of Innovation as many of their faithful will like you to believe) have just taken another step in trying to create a popular web service of some description (any description in my opinion) Looking at Bing and also considering Google apps, its easy to see why this next piece of news has happened (IMO).

Its being reported that Microsoft have “acquired” a Twitter account started by a 19 year old which offered news reports and has over 1 million followers. Michael van Poppel allegedly set up the account two years ago and on December the 1st a (very thankful Microsoft I believe) took possession of it.

Another example of Microsoft “not getting it” when they turn to the successes of a 19 year old in order to get their hands on a successful service?

[...]

So why is this a problem? Well its not, however Ive covered those “dubious” Twitter accounts that promote Microsoft products and then suddenly stop when challenged. I’ve covered the Twitter account which was using a legitimate (and innocent) company name to promote Microsoft stock. Who is behind this? I could (and would) not say for sure. I will let you decide however when you see all the Microsoft product RT bots on Twitter, you have to wonder how much is officially Microsoft and how much of the Twitter servers bandwidth is being taken up by the RT of MS PR around it.

[...]

In the first part of this article I covered Microsoft “acquiring” that which it HADN’T innovated, but now we move on to an example of Microsoft Innovation. Im sure you will be impressed as much as I am.

Microsoft China has developed a service called Juku which allows you to post 140 char messages to people in the MSN live network. I have to say that I was blown away at the originality of such a scheme. ;)

There is more information about it here.

Related posts:

Share in other sites/networks: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.
  • Reddit
  • email

Decor ᶃ Gemini Space

Below is a Web proxy. We recommend getting a Gemini client/browser.

Black/white/grey bullet button This post is also available in Gemini over at this address (requires a Gemini client/browser to open).

Decor ✐ Cross-references

Black/white/grey bullet button Pages that cross-reference this one, if any exist, are listed below or will be listed below over time.

Decor ▢ Respond and Discuss

Black/white/grey bullet button If you liked this post, consider subscribing to the RSS feed or join us now at the IRC channels.

DecorWhat Else is New


  1. Links 01/04/2023: Red Hat Turning 30

    Links for the day



  2. Links 31/03/2023: Mozilla Turns 25 and OpenMandriva 23.03

    Links for the day



  3. IRC Proceedings: Friday, March 31, 2023

    IRC logs for Friday, March 31, 2023



  4. Linus Tech (Illiteracy) Tips, LTT, Buys Phoronix Media

    Phoronix Media is being acquired by a larger company; the site will not change though



  5. Decided to Quit Debian and Use WSL Instead (Best of Both Worlds)

    Today starts a journey to a “better” experience, which lets Microsoft audit the kernel and leverage telemetry to improve my Debian experience



  6. Microsoft Has Laid Off Lennart Poettering and Hired Elon Musk

    Poettering gets rehired by IBM; IBM and Microsoft announce merger, putting Poettering back into his former position



  7. Links 31/03/2023: Ruby 3.2.2 and Linux Lite 6.4

    Links for the day



  8. Links 31/03/2023: Devices and Games, Mostly Leftovers

    Links for the day



  9. IRC Proceedings: Thursday, March 30, 2023

    IRC logs for Thursday, March 30, 2023



  10. Links 31/03/2023: Ubuntu 23.04 Beta, Donald Trump Indicted, and Finland’s NATO Bid Progresses

    Links for the day



  11. Translating the Lies of António Campinos (EPO)

    António Campinos has read a lousy script full of holes and some of the more notorious EPO talking points; we respond below



  12. [Meme] Too Many Fake European Patents? So Start Fake European Courts for Patents.

    António Campinos, who sent EPO money to Belarus, insists that the EPO is doing well; nothing could be further from the truth and EPO corruption is actively threatening the EU (or its legitimacy)



  13. Thomas Magenheim-Hörmann in RedaktionsNetzwerk Deutschland About Declining Quality and Declining Validity of European Patents (for EPO and Illegal Kangaroo Courts)

    Companies are not celebrating the “production line” culture fostered by EPO management, which is neither qualified for the job nor wants to adhere to the law (it's intentionally inflating a bubble)



  14. Links 30/03/2023: HowTos and Political News

    Links for the day



  15. Links 30/03/2023: LibreOffice 7.5.2 and Linux 6.2.9

    Links for the day



  16. Links 30/03/2023: WordPress 6.2 “Dolphy” and OpenMandriva ROME 23.03

    Links for the day



  17. Sirius is Britain’s Most Respected and Best Established Open Source Business, According to Sirius Itself, So Why Defraud the Staff?

    Following today's part about the crimes of Sirius ‘Open Source’ another video seemed to be well overdue (those installments used to be daily); the video above explains to relevance to Techrights and how workers feel about being cheated by a company that presents itself as “Open Source” even to some of the highest and most prestigious public institutions in the UK



  18. IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, March 29, 2023

    IRC logs for Wednesday, March 29, 2023



  19. [Meme] Waiting for Standard Life to Deal With Pension Fraud

    The crimes of Sirius ‘Open Source’ were concealed with the authoritative name of Standard Life, combined with official papers from Standard Life itself; why does Standard Life drag its heels when questioned about this matter since the start of this year?



  20. Former Staff of Sirius Open Source Responds to Revelations About the Company's Crimes

    Crimes committed by the company that I left months ago are coming to light; today we share some reactions from other former staff (without naming anybody)



  21. Among Users in the World's Largest Population, Microsoft is the 1%

    A sobering look at India shows that Microsoft lost control of the country (Windows slipped to 16% market share while GNU/Linux grew a lot; Bing is minuscule; Edge fell to 1.01% and now approaches “decimal point” territories)



  22. In One City Alone Microsoft Fired Almost 3,000 Workers This Year (We're Still in March)

    You can tell a company isn’t doing well when amid mass layoffs it pays endless money to the media — not to actual workers — in order for this media to go crazy over buzzwords, chaffbots, and other vapourware (as if the company is a market leader and has a future for shareholders to look forward to, even if claims are exaggerated and there’s no business model)



  23. Links 29/03/2023: InfluxDB FDW 2.0.0 and Erosion of Human Rights

    Links for the day



  24. Links 29/03/2023: Parted 3.5.28 and Blender 3.5

    Links for the day



  25. Links 29/03/2023: New Finnix and EasyOS Kirkstone 5.2

    Links for the day



  26. IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, March 28, 2023

    IRC logs for Tuesday, March 28, 2023



  27. [Meme] Fraud Seems Standard to Standard Life

    Sirius ‘Open Source’ has embezzled and defrauded staff; now it is being protected (delaying and stonewalling tactics) by those who helped facilitate the robbery



  28. 3 Months to Progress Pension Fraud Investigations in the United Kingdom

    Based on our experiences and findings, one simply cannot rely on pension providers to take fraud seriously (we’ve been working as a group on this); all they want is the money and risk does not seem to bother them, even when there’s an actual crime associated with pension-related activities



  29. 36,000 Soon

    Techrights is still growing; in WordPress alone (not the entire site) we’re fast approaching 36,000 posts; in Gemini it’s almost 45,500 pages and our IRC community turns 15 soon



  30. Contrary to What Bribed (by Microsoft) Media Keeps Saying, Bing is in a Freefall and Bing Staff is Being Laid Off (No, Chatbots Are Not Search and Do Not Substitute Web Pages!)

    Chatbots/chaffbot media noise (chaff) needs to be disregarded; Microsoft has no solid search strategy, just lots and lots of layoffs that never end this year (Microsoft distracts shareholders with chaffbot hype/vapourware each time a wave of layoffs starts, giving financial incentives for publishers to not even mention these; right now it’s GitHub again, with NDAs signed to hide that it is happening)


RSS 64x64RSS Feed: subscribe to the RSS feed for regular updates

Home iconSite Wiki: You can improve this site by helping the extension of the site's content

Home iconSite Home: Background about the site and some key features in the front page

Chat iconIRC Channel: Come and chat with us in real time

Recent Posts