Filed under: Business, Internet, Microsoft, Social Software
Truly targeted advertising - coming to a desktop near your soon?
For the Windows users out there who've been affected by adware, this might be salt to the wounds: ArsTechnica is reporting that Microsoft of all firms has patented the "mother of all adware systems" - an advertising framework that allows adverts to be matched to data you search, and potentially data on your hard drive as well.There are, of course, huge privacy concerns that we'll be watching, and seeing whether Microsoft can address these whilst providing more relevant adverts (something we'd love, if we really have to have adverts). The patent application lists "user document files, user e-mail files, user music files, downloaded podcasts, computer settings, computer status messages (e.g., a low memory status or low printer ink)" as examples of the technology potentially coming to a system near you soon.
So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do.
Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game.
The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
iamhoff said 12:13PM on 7-18-2007
Ok. Going to a website and getting popups and such, while annoying I can deal with it. But if Microsoft is going to start building ads into their own software so that my machine can drop ads on me when I'm playing an installed game, blogging, or even (gasp!) actually working, nothing is going to get me to move more quickly to Linux, Open Office, and Firefox, and I already have OO and Firefox.
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Todd said 2:34PM on 7-18-2007
That's the best acronym I have seen all day, can I use that?
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Hylic said 2:58PM on 7-18-2007
Is it possible that they are only patenting it as a "defensive measure" (in other words just to prevent other companies from placing adware one your system)?
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