Home Messages Index
[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]
Author IndexDate IndexThread Index

Re: Microsoft IE8 rolls out the astroturf

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

____/ nessuno@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx on Tuesday 27 January 2009 18:18 : \____

> <Quote>
> How to lose friends and alienate people
> 
> Microsoft is hawking ... Internet Explorer 8 browser at its staff in a
> desperate attempt to snatch back some of Mozilla’s growing market
> share.
> 
> The company is asking its UK employees to take part in its very own
> astroturfing campaign by getting MS wonks to send out an email to at
> least ten soon to be ex-friends encouraging them to download the third
> beta of IE 8.
> 
> Microsoft flacks urged staff yesterday to pester their mates about the
> firm’s upcoming browser by requesting they send out what many will
> view as time-wasting spam.
> 
> The viral email starts off by suggesting that the sender of the
> message finds the world of computers, the interwebs and indeed life
> inside the Microsoft cage as simply irresistible.
> 
> "You know I work at Microsoft, and that I love technology," it reads.
> "Sometimes I love Microsoft technology so much that I can't wait to
> tell people about it, and this is one of those times. Microsoft has
> just released the Release Candidate 1 for Internet Explorer 8, and I
> think you should install it and use it today."
> 
> An El Reg reader contacted us after he received the email from a
> friend who works at Microsoft. "I guessed that it wasn't his handywork
> from the first few lines," he told us.
> 
> The third, and probably final, beta of IE 8 landed yesterday and
> includes a list of websites that Microsoft says actually work with its
> browser.
> 
> It comes loaded with two modes for viewing sites. The default mode
> supports the latest web standards such as CSS 2.1, to help satisfy EU
> regulators.
> 
> Meanwhile, its compatibility mode allows users to view the millions of
> sites and applications built back in the dark, US regulator-bothering
> days when older versions of Internet Explorer didn't comply with web
> standards. ®
> </Quote>
> 
> http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/01/27/microsoft_ie8_chain_letter/

Years ago, Microsoft had spammed all registered Linux users in Austria, IIRC.
They were rightly pissed off.


- -- 
                ~~ Best of wishes

Microsoft loves competition.
"I’d be glad to help tilt lotus into into the death spiral. I could do it
Friday afternoon but not Saturday. I could do it pretty much any time the
following week."
                --Brad Silverberg, Microsoft
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.9 (GNU/Linux)

iEYEARECAAYFAkl/VjgACgkQU4xAY3RXLo76qACgi6rf1tWLdTm0MbrS921VxpnV
cvIAn1qg4aczbu+tUG4jeDLu3tWcUo3l
=eKFf
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]
Author IndexDate IndexThread Index