Microsoft To Add Bing Ads To Windows 8.1 Search

[Zeven]

Continuing to plug away at Google GOOG -0.59%s dominant share of the lucrative search advertising market, Microsoft MSFT -1.22% today announced that it will add its Bing Adssystem to the new version of Windows due to launch later this year.

Last week, the software giant launched a preview of Window 8.1, a planned update of its latest computer operating system. It will offer a feature called Smart Search that allows users to conduct a search in Windows that will look for information on the Web, their device, apps, and a company cloud. Part of a larger plan to turn Bing into a software platform, its intended to provide an easier way to find what youre looking for without having to make separate searches on the Web and in your email, for example.

Today, Microsoft said its advertisers will be able to target users not just on Web search results pages but directly inside Windows Smart Search. David Pann, general manager of Microsofts Search Advertising Group, said in an interview that advertisers dont have to do additional setup to participate. The Smart Search ads will feature a preview of the websites the ad will send people to, as well as click-to-call info and site links, which are additional links under the main result that direct users deeper into a website to the most likely page they might want.

The above is only an excerpt. Here is the source.

I lol'd.

[TheAnimus]

Oh yey! Exactly what I want to see when I'm searching my PC with my paid for OS on it.

So long as they don't fornicate up the separation, and it is only on the 'web' mode I'm fine with it mind. As I am kinda used to the idea of searching the web meaning adverts.

[Zeven]

Oh yey! Exactly what I want to see when I'm searching my PC with my paid for OS on it.

So long as they don't fornicate up the separation, and it is only on the 'web' mode I'm fine with it mind. As I am kinda used to the idea of searching the web meaning adverts.

Unless I am misunderstanding, isn't the second paragraph in the excerpt precisely what you are talking about?

[Saracen]

Oh yey! Exactly what I want to see when I'm searching my PC with my paid for OS on it.

So long as they don't fornicate up the separation, and it is only on the 'web' mode I'm fine with it mind. As I am kinda used to the idea of searching the web meaning adverts.

Exactly.

My tolerance for getting ads when I search on my own PC will be exactly zero.

Mind you, I doubt it'll be long before ways to block it transpire, assuming that blocking IP's of existing ad services doesn't do it already. But it's presumptuous as hell.


Come on, MS, there must be some novel way to make Windows 8 unappealing that you haven't tried yet, despite your extensive and intensive efforts ..... mustn't there??

[Zeven]

Exactly.

My tolerance for getting ads when I search on my own PC will be exactly zero.

Mind you, I doubt it'll be long before ways to block it transpire, assuming that blocking IP's of existing ad services doesn't do it already. But it's presumptuous as hell.


Come on, MS, there must be some novel way to make Windows 8 unappealing that you haven't tried yet, despite your extensive and intensive efforts ..... mustn't there??

What if Microsoft have realised that Apple are the true evil in this world and are thus trying to push people towards Linux? What if Microsoft are the heroes the world deserves, but not the ones it needs right now?

[TheAnimus]

Unless I am misunderstanding, isn't the second paragraph in the excerpt precisely what you are talking about?

No because I fear they are doing what Google tried before.

You see Google were not content with reading their users mail, scanning it for profit. They decided they wanted to index their users entire HDDs too!

And thus the Google Desktop was born, which was kind of an indexing service back in the days most people using XP had it turned off (or didn't realise there was such a feature).

This gave a unified search. You would type in there and it would search your emails, any PDFs/WordDocs, but also the internets too. This was a vector for yet more advertising.

I am resentful for that, because ultimately, if I know the exact name of the brand I am searching for, I don't know why they should have to pay an advert fee for my click.

[Zeven]

No because I fear they are doing what Google tried before.

You see Google were not content with reading their users mail, scanning it for profit. They decided they wanted to index their users entire HDDs too!

And thus the Google Desktop was born, which was kind of an indexing service back in the days most people using XP had it turned off (or didn't realise there was such a feature).

This gave a unified search. You would type in there and it would search your emails, any PDFs/WordDocs, but also the internets too. This was a vector for yet more advertising.

I am resentful for that, because ultimately, if I know the exact name of the brand I am searching for, I don't know why they should have to pay an advert fee for my click.

Thank you for the explanation, but that still sounds like what the second paragraph is saying. What's the difference?

[TheAnimus]

Because I think they will try and make SmartSearch the defacto goto search for whats on your system.

Integration with the company is cool, don't get me wrong, I've worked for enough Fortune500s to know how useless they are co-ordinating data. Afterall how could the horrific thing that is sharepoint be a good thing overall.

However this is a slippery slope, because it stops the desire for 'OS package' level innovation. The thing is, unlike Saracen I think the new features are useful, which is why I dislike the fact to get them I've got to go down that path of monetisation!

[Saracen]

....

However this is a slippery slope, because it stops the desire for 'OS package' level innovation. The thing is, unlike Saracen I think the new features are useful, which is why I dislike the fact to get them I've got to go down that path of monetisation!

Well, it's about "price", innit? And I don't mean money.

I put a value on privacy, and DON'T want Google scooping up vast amounts of it, and any search tool that even MIGHT be rummaging around on my HDs and reporting back to the mothership, whether that mothership, is an anathema to me. And that still applies when the mothership is MS, not Google.

Yes, some features may be desirable, some useful. But to me, not if the price is loss of privacy. I'd rather buy Opus. Or do without.

For me, advertising and privacy are closely linked. I don't want advertising, but what I detest with a visceral hatred, is targetedadvertising, precisely because the targeting process involves these companies building an ever more detailed profile on each of us, and I have NO control over what they know about me, or think they know, or how accurate it is, or what they do with it, or whether I want them doing it or not.

I know I can't avoid being advertised at, but I do everything I realistically can to avoid targeted ads. I buy little online, I pay cash where possible, and I have even been known to send Data Protection Act section 11 notices to companies that won't stop pestering me. One local pizza place got one, and lost my custom over that, and another is about to.

And there are no circumstances under which I want ads on my desktop when I search my own PC. None whatever. I don't care who provides them, or what the offer is, I don't want it. And I REALLY don't want them nosing around in my private stuff in order to do it.

For me, no matter how useful the search, the price is too high.

[shaithis]

Hmmm, I normally like the direction MS moves in but todays news (Technet and this) have left me a bit bemused.......

[Zeven]

Advertisers no doubt will take advantage of this opportunity, but it will be interesting to see how users respond to ads showing up in response to data collected from activities beyond their own Web searchesactivities that to date have at least seemed more private.

I find this excerpt to be especially amusing.

[peterb]

What if Microsoft have realised that Apple are the true evil in this world and are thus trying to push people towards Linux? What if Microsoft are the heroes the world deserves, but not the ones it needs right now?

With Gnome doing it's best to emulate the metro GUI in all its ugliness and user unfriendliness, the 'One size fits all' model is decidedly unappealing.

Apple have a different GUI for their portable and desktop operating systems - so at this rate, my next PC purchase is likely to be a Mac Mini - and the OSX is Unix based anyway.

And there is no way I would ever describe Microsoft as heroes of the world - although I realise that is tongue in cheek - even in jest. However, I am happy to stand by and watch Microsoft crash and burn.

However, as I only stopped using Win2K when Windows 7 came out, there are still a few more years before I will be upgrading Windows again, and FC14/Gnome2 will keep me going until the Mate desktop reaches some maturity, although some of the features of the latest Linux kernel (and systemd) do make upgrading worthwhile on servers and dead-headed systems where the CLI is sufficient.

(And who, in their right mind, would use something called Bing?)

[Zeven]

With Gnome doing it's best to emulate the metro GUI in all its ugliness and user unfriendliness, the 'One size fits all' model is decidedly unappealing.

Apple have a different GUI for their portable and desktop operating systems - so at this rate, my next PC purchase is likely to be a Mac Mini - and the OSX is Unix based anyway.

And there is no way I would ever describe Microsoft as heroes of the world - although I realise that is tongue in cheek - even in jest. However, I am happy to stand by and watch Microsoft crash and burn.

However, as I only stopped using Win2K when Windows 7 came out, there are still a few more years before I will be upgrading Windows again, and FC14/Gnome2 will keep me going until the Mate desktop reaches some maturity, although some of the features of the latest Linux kernel (and systemd) do make upgrading worthwhile on servers and dead-headed systems where the CLI is sufficient.

(And who, in their right mind, would use something called Bing?)

I do not keep myself up to date regarding the GNOME desktop but I remember it being different enough to not be be associated with Modern UI, although that is may be somewhat subjective. I am a big fan of KDE and Xfce. Regarding Mac OS, being stuck in the Apple ecosystem or paying exuberant amounts of money for hardware or Apple's patent trolling make any product by Apple unappealing to me. Either way, both Apple and Microsoft are in bed with the NSA and I just cannot condone that.

[TheAnimus]

Either way, both Apple and Microsoft are in bed with the NSA and I just cannot condone that.

But they have a legal requirement to be so.

If you halt the services of every firm that co-operates with the law of the country they are incorporated in, you will find yourself SOL.

[Zeven]

But they have a legal requirement to be so.

If you halt the services of every firm that co-operates with the law of the country they are incorporated in, you will find yourself SOL.

Judging from my reading, the NSA has gone way past what's even legal, breaking several international treaties to boot. The argument is whether it is justified or not, so as far as I am aware, it's past the point of legality.

[Dooms]

David Pann, general manager of Microsofts Search Advertising Group, said in an interview that advertisers dont have to do additional setup to participate

I lol'd...

Oh thanks for making it so easy for us to participate in this thing we don't want but yet try and make it sound like you are doing us a favour!