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Thursday, May 04, 2006

Ad supported version of Office soon?


A while ago, Cnet ran a story about Microsoft considering releasing ad supported version of their software. Sounds as if they've made their minds up on this one and that an ad supported, (free or heavily discounted) version of Office is in the works. Buried within a report on MS new ad serving technology - Ad Center (which BTW I think will migrate off the web and onto TV soon) - is the announcement that Ad Center will serve ads not just on MSN search but also on xbox live and Office...

I don't know how users will react to interstitials interrupting them while they're writing memos and presentations, but for some advertisers this could be a godsend as it provides a real link into an extremely valuable daypart that could influence after work sales. I know I've worked on a bunch of different projects from online travel portals to TV dinners where I would have killed to be able to bank on connecting with people while they're working.

I think this is the smartest thing I've heard from Microsoft for ages. They've realized Office isn't an app, it's a network. Brilliant.

2 comments:

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