MicroSoft AdCenter’s Affiliate Program did not last long at all.  The program is set to stop paying commissions as of February 29, 2008.  No real explanation was given as to why the MicroSoft AdCenter Affiliate program will be shut down.  Here is a portion of the email:

“Thank you for your participation in the adCenter Affiliate program. Unfortunately, the adCenter offer will no longer be available after February 29th, 2008.  Final commission payout for any activity through the end of February will be processed and paid out in the month of March as usual. Please be sure to remove all marketing materials associated with this offer from placement by February 29th as you will no longer receive credit for this activity.”

This is kind of surprising in my opinion because there wasn’t much time or effort given to the affiliate program.  Granted, I don’t know why the program is shutting down, but you would think they would give it a little more effort and time.

For those of you promoting the Microsoft AdCenter Affiliate program, make sure you remove your links by the end of February.

Everyone knows of MicroSoft purchasing aQuantive for $6 billion earlier in the summer. The move foreshadows MicroSoft’s newest direction online. MicroSoft says the move to buy aQuantive is not a fluke, and to expect online advertising to become a major player in their overall business strategy.  Expect 25% of MicroSoft’s business functions to directly or indirectly come from online advertising.

The online advertising market continues to grow at a rapid pace, and with major players Yahoo and Google participating heavily in online advertising, it should come as no surprise that MicroSoft wants to compete with the major players. Google has made their own purchase this summer when they bought DoubleClick for a little over $3 billion. Yahoo is the only major player who hasn’t made a purchase of a noted advertising agency. The next few years should be interesting as the online advertising battle heats up.

I downloaded the Free Trial for MicroSoft Office 2007 and I loved it. I tried out MicroSoft Professional edition, and the Free Trial convinced me to make the leap and make the purchase.

If you love MicroSoft Excel, MicroSoft Word, MicroSoft PowerPoint and the rest of the MicroSoft Office Suite, then I recommend downloading the trial or just outright buying MicroSoft Office 2007.

MicroSoft is looking to buy a minority stake in Facebook. The deal MicroSoft is interested in would give them 5% ownership of the company. earlier in the year MicroSoft was willing to shell out $10 billion for social networking site, but FaceBook said it was not for sale.

Google is also said to be interested in the minority stake in FaceBook. Google doesn’t need FaceBook as badly as MicroSoft does. Google is constantly innovating and growing their business within the company and with outside acquisitions. Google’s applications are an example of their internal growth and the Google-DoubleClick merger is an example of their outside activity.

MicroSoft did well with their acquisition of aQuantive earlier this summer, but they are still lagging in terms of growth and visibility. Google’s growth is still over 20% annually, whereas MicroSoft’s is closer to 5%. We’ll have to wait and see who has the better first date with Facebook.

MicroSoft is clearly upset that Google was able to buy DoubleClick.  They clearly fear their old dominance in the online world is slipping, and this deal is pushing them farther from the top.  So MicroSoft has hired a PR firm, Burson-Marsteller, to go around and bad mouth the Google & DoubleClick deal.

Burson-Marsteller has been spreading their word throughout the online community, specifically media outlets and Internet companies, about the potential side effects of this deal.  They are worried that Google isn’t operating on a fair playing field.  MicroSoft has lost even more ground in the online advertising industry online, and they fear they cannot make the ground up now that Google owns DoubleClick.  MicroSoft wants a more competitive and transparent online business-scape.

I understand why MicroSoft has fought the Google & DoubleClick deal at every turn, but it has already been approved by regulators, and none of MicroSoft’s bad-mouthing will stop this deal from taking place.  MicroSoft is wasting money they should otherwise be using to improve their positioning in the online advertising industry.  This is a petty effort by Microsoft and it makes them look like amateurs in my eyes.  May the best company take over the world!

Now that I have gotten to play around with the programs included in MicroSoft Office Professional Edition 2007 60 Day Free Trial I can recommend it to everyone who asks about it. I would buy MicroSoft Office Professional Edition 2007 in a second.

The Free 60 Day Trial for MicroSoft Professional 2007 included these programs to try out: (more…)