Microsoft Putting Ads in Windows?

[dvduval]

Seems to me that Microsoft could best compete with google by putting ads in windows. Not that I would like this too much, but I bet it is feasible. There is a story now about them doing this in Microsoft Works. Could ads be on the way soon?

[wige]

No. It would kill them. There are two major issues with forcing ads as part of the Operating System.

First, I have used a computer where the Operating System (Windows XP) was rigged to force the user to view banner ads at all times. A computer company tried this in the US several years ago as a way to roll out less expensive computers. Unfortunately for the company, the majority of people who bought the computers were people knowledgeable enough to permanently disable the system that displayed the ads.

In order to display the ads, part of the screen real estate must be dedicated to those ads. This is going to remove the space for other applications, and the ads will distract users from anything else they are trying to do on the computer. There are alternative applications on the market, and customers will jump ship to an alternative operating system to avoid the loss of screen real estate and the distraction.

The second major issue is security. An ad platform that serves a large enough audience is begging to be compromised. Just look at the ad platform used by RealNetworks, which was used to distribute malware through it's user network last year. This system would prove a tempting target for advertisers and criminals alike. Advertisers would try to abuse the system to spy on customers to gain information about them to target ads, and criminals would try to steal information or computing resources for their own ends.

Personally, I can't see Microsoft going in this direction. They would essentially hand their market share over to Apple and Novell or Sun, for a small, short term profit. They would likely lose their distribution agreements as computer manufacturers stop pre-installing Windows in favor of Linux, predicting the user backlash that would result. Once that shift began, software manufacturers would step up to improve the hardware and software support for Linux. Once more software becomes available on Linux, more of the holdouts would make the switch.