Why in the world is Microsoft (through an agency) trying pay bloggers to write about Internet Explorer? Do people still do this? And given my position on paid posts, why would they think I’d be willing to participate?
This is just layers of stupid.
Yes, people still do this. It’s always hard to prove, but when you see the same (sometimes word-for-word) pro-Apple, pro-Microsoft, or pro-Google comments show up on multiple sites from different users in a timespan of a few hours or days, you know the coffee ain’t pure.
I’m fairly sure this is a common business practice for most companies in virtually all industries.
To be fair, there’s a big difference between being “fairly sure” and actually “knowing.”
It is a normal practice for major newspapers and magazines to recycle press releases as ‘news’ articles. These articles are then published to coincide with advertising campaigns.
My point still stands; thinking something is normal or expected and (f)actual knowledge in the matter are two different things…
Yesterday my local newspaper had a biographical ‘story’ about Dwayne ‘The Rock” Johnston which morphed into an advertisement for his latest film. It was obviously a press release. Several of these releases occur in every issue.
Exactly, all the major corps pay cheerleaders to drum up buzz for a product. this is as old as dirt and nothing to get knickers in a twist over.
That said those of us that got burnt with IE 6 will never touch or allow to be touched IE in our presence, years of cleaning off drivebys and dealing with zero days cured us of that shit.
Here at the shop I give folks Comodo Dragon and PaleMoon as some prefer the Chromium way of doing things and some the Gecko but the first thing I do after installing an alternative is get rid of IE links, I don’t want them hitting the blue E even by accident. Like it or not IE is still the largest target by far for malware so it just makes sense not to use the software that has a giant bullseye painted on it, thanks anyway MSFT.
I recently removed Chrome and Firefox from my parents PC. Everybody should know that IE is the safest broweser out there.
Thank you, Microsoft, for the best browser ever made.
(ps, Mr. Nadella, you know where you can send the money, thanks)
And Windows is the safest and most secure OS out there, hu ?
Kochise
I agree totally. Microsoft makes the best browsers on the planet. I weep with joy at every update our dear leader… I mean our inspiring operating system provides us.
P.S. For anyone at Microsoft Accounts Payable… I accept bit coins as well as cash.
To create a new standard, it takes something that’s not just a little bit different; it takes something that’s really new and really captures people’s imagination — and Internet Explorer, of all the browsers I’ve ever seen, is the only one that meets that standard.
ps. MS, feel free to donate my payment to Thom Holwerda.
pps. Any likeness to famous quotations is purely coincidental.
It’s a pitty that IE is neither in android’s apps store nore in ubuntu’s ppas availible 🙁
You can install it with winetricks lol
fastest in what aspect?
* fastest in a single benchmark?
* fastest to start up?
* fastest to get malware installed?
OK, IE is a fairly good browser, but is not the fastest browser in all aspects.
pica
And what did you buy with the money?
Bribes are not tax-deductible
.
Cash in hand is always tax deductible.
Not at all surprising…
This means that Starbucks still manages to get wrong coffee wrong.
Oh well, at least they pay for college.
It is no surprise companies pay for positive articles, but I often wonder how many negative posts are paid for. There are some posts (I believe often from the same group of people) I see following many blogs/articles on certain topics. The comment posts are often almost word-for-word the same and from people using similar (or the same) handles. This makes me wonder if they are being paid or if they are fantatical.
Seeing the same negative post on multiple sites whenever an article on a particular topic comes up suggests either money changing hands or mental health problems.
thumbs up. I thought I heard something about that related to Samsung and other phone maker, where someone was getting paid to trash the others’ products. But yeah, sometimes when you read the negative comments, you begin to think some people may not be firing on all 8 cylinders.
I believe it was Samsung paying students in Taiwan to trash-talk HTC phones.
LG also accused Samsung of doing the same thing in their native South Korea, though I can’t recall if it was related to phones or other electronic products.
Alright: Paid posts are one thing, but now they’re screwing with my coffee?!
—
Yes, I get the reference (and btw love the coffee-related Dutch idioms in the linked post!). Please forgive the weak attempt at humour; *my* morning coffee is still only partially consumed…
Not long ago, a PR agency paid by Microsoft did something very similar.
They wanted users to create YouTube videos showing Xbox One gameplay and would pay for views. The videos would have to be tagged “XB1M13” and subject to Campaign Video guidelines that forbade saying negative things about the publisher, console or game.
Of course, the program was halted immediately after it became public.
Not surprised. I’d be more amazed that if nobody else did it.
That said, I would seriously consider using IE as my day-to-day browser if it had a more integrated extension/plugin system.
Having to find individual websites via Google or Bing that contain a specific extension, which is then downloaded, installed via .exe, and uninstalled via the add/remove programs control panel, is horseshit.
Give me an add-on manager à la Firefox, and I’d actually give it a fair shot. Come on, Microsoft. You can do it.
How about all the shills that spread the same bullshit for free? You gotta wonder about those, dipshits they are!