Microsoft Works to become a ad-funded product

31 July 2007 in Microsoft & Software

So, the next Microsoft small-business/home productivity suite is going to be free and ad-funded.

I don’t personally have anything against ad-funded products, mainly because I use some Google products daily, and I’m already used to this notion. I see this as a good way to Microsoft compete with web-based apps like the ones Google offers, with the big advantage of being a desktop application which provides hundreds more features.

MSN Messenger is a long time ad-funded desktop application, and never once I had any “problem” with that.

Microsoft Works 9.0 is now going to be the first productive application of maybe several other application using advertising. Can this type of free ad-funded products be better than the customer-paid versions?

(Original source: Mary Jo Foley – ZDNet)

2 comments. Add your own comment.

Rob says 1 August 2007 @ 15:00

Advertising in the web has become expected, but in the desktop it’s just distracting, especially in a productivity suite. As for Messenger, thank god for workarounds (mess.be) so we can tone down the interface a bit.

fabiopedrosa says 1 August 2007 @ 21:36

I also use such tool to remove the ad banner from messenger, but I would say the average user don’t complain about that. They get used to it.

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