Filed under: Internet, Windows, Microsoft, Social Software, Windows x64
Live Messenger turns 10, MS uses extras download to pimp IE8 and Bing
by Lee Mathews Jul 23rd 2009 at 2:00PM
To celebrate, Microsoft has put together a free download containing emoticons, winks, backgrounds, and other Messenger extras. To see whether or not this was postable, I downloaded both Live Messenger and the pack and installed them.
When you click the download button for the "FREE Gift Pack," you'll not only get the extras, you'll also get a pop-up advertisement pushing IE8. When you start installing the pack, you'll get another poke in the ribs asking you to download the new browser.
And you'll also be prompted to change your homepage to MSN and your default search provider to Bing. Unlike the recent IE8 installer change, this time the options are checked by default. Maybe you really can't teach an old dog new tricks.
On top of all this, there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of content in the pack. So what's the real goal here? To say "thank you" to 10 years of use and 330 million users, or to capitalize on the opportunity to wrangle some more browser and search share?
Get a WordPress.com Blog
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)
Christian Velasquez said 2:09PM on 7-23-2009
LMFAO
Can't you just kill the process that's going to begging you to install IE8?
or is this only if you don'y have IE8 installed?
or what if you do?
Will it still prompt you to install IE8 even so?
Reply
chrisaroz said 2:18PM on 7-23-2009
As if trying to download Quicktime is any better....
Reply
Kururugi said 2:37PM on 7-23-2009
I don't get it. People complain about IE6 being the scourge of the internet, and then when microsoft does everything to push its new, better (even if not by much) browser, then we ridicule them. I think your biases have gotten in the way of your reporting.
Reply
Ashish said 2:46PM on 7-23-2009
what were you expecting? Free Win7 licenses?
Everybody does it, am pretty sick of unchecking google toolbar install options bundled with so many other softwares.
Did u forget Apple, yes, your darling Apple, force installing safari on unsuspecting itunes updaters?
This whole MS bashing is sometimes nonsense.
Reply
Lee Mathews said 3:12PM on 7-23-2009
No, I've ripped on Apple for that before.
http://www.downloadsquad.com/2008/08/05/5-apps-you-run-that-suck-and-5-replacements-that-dont/
It's a bad practice, regardless of who's doing it.
Ashish said 5:00PM on 7-23-2009
I agree, but, when MS does it, it is given a very different spin, all M$, Win95 flaws, virus etc all historical and current slurs are rolled into one.
KingOfGods said 5:21PM on 7-23-2009
Plus the "Rip" on Apple was in the middle of an unrelated post....... yet MS gets a whole blog post about this?
Molly said 5:42PM on 7-23-2009
"click the download button for the "FREE Gift Pack,"
there is no such thing as free lunch, and most certainly not from Microsoft.
Reply
G said 5:27AM on 7-24-2009
And this marks 10 years of disabling it on new computers I set up for clients.
Reply
markworden7 said 10:47AM on 7-27-2009
Hey, after reading this article, I just realized something...
Crazy Frog has been kinda pushing MS's search engine for a while now...
"Bing Bing!"
=)
Sorry...couldn't resist
Reply