Microsoft prepares Ad-Supported Software

Microsoft is planning to introduce an ad-supported Microsoft Works Suite. They hope to introduce this through a pilot project with OEMs (Original equipment manufacturer) in the coming months.

A growing pain for Microsoft is strong competition from OpenOffice.org and Google Docs. Although the competition still hasn' taken much of Microsoft share in the field, they are growing their numbers and have added benefits that Microsoft doesn't offer. A huge advantage of the two competing applications are that they are offered completely free with no strings attached. Microsoft plans to counter these alternatives by introducing a free version of their ignored Microsoft Works suite. However, Microsoft's offering is filled with advertising that will run on the application regardless of whether the computer is connected to the internet. The advertising raising privacy issues because advertising is often contextual (meaning that it sees what you are typing and showing advertising related on that). However, Microsoft has put privacy critics to rest by announcing that they will have advertising based on the user's age and location in contrast to them checking what you are typing in your documents. The pilot project should commence later this year with several OEMs (Original equipment manufacturer) according to Microsoft and CNET News. However, the move may make a very small impact on the competition and unless they are successful with their advertising model it could hurt their profits from Microsoft Office 2007 sales. However, an advertising model may be what Microsoft will be heading towards. They have already filed patents for incorporating advertising into the Windows Operating System framework. With any success from the built-in advertising concept, we may have a flurry of ad-supported software from Microsoft.