The Googlization of Everything

Machinist - Salon.com:

Microsoft doesn't matter anymore

Earlier this week, Microsoft unveiled a new promotion that tries to encourage more people to use Microsoft Live Search instead of Google. Here's the way it works: Each time you search on Live Search, you receive "tickets" -- think of them as airline miles. After a certain number of tickets, you get various goodies. With 525, you get five music downloads, 1,100 tickets gets you a T-shirt, and 1,800 tickets gets you airline miles, and so forth. This comes on the heels of a similar promotion five months ago where users who purchased certain products through the search engine could get some of the purchase price back. Oh, and you have to be one of the first million to participate in order to get the tickets.

Is anyone honestly going to be swayed by this really lame marketing campaign? Seriously, this reeks of desperation from Redmond. I'm beginning to wonder if, in fact, anyone cares that Microsoft's recent major product campaigns -- perhaps with the lone exception of the XBox -- have all been major flops. Put another way, Microsoft doesn't matter anymore. ...