I love the range of Microsoft’s campaigns to get people to use Internet Explorer 8. They spread from offering to feed the homeless if you download it, to offering you the chance at $10,000 dollars. It’s quite impressive, really.
I think we all know my feelings about Microsoft using charity in a misleading way to drive IE8 downloads, but this latest promotion is just kind of pathetic. Microsoft has a campaign in Australia to give away $10,000 that it has buried “somewhere on the Internet.” But the catch is that in order to find this money, you need to be using IE8. Apparently, if you stumble upon the site where Microsoft placed it using that browser, you’ll get some sort of notification and the money is yours.
Sadly, I don’t have IE8, so instead I get this rather rude message on the page: “But you’ll never find it using that browser. So get rid of it, or get lost.” That’s a nice FU to Mac users who don’t even have the option to use IE. Not that it should be surprising.
What else is interesting about this campaign is that it’s also directly tied to Twitter. Microsoft is suggesting that users who wish to play this IE8 treasure hunt also follow @tengrand_IE8 on Twitter to get daily clues.
Finally, at the bottom of the page it reads, “Tell your friends. It’s not as stupid as it sounds.” At least they acknowledge that it sounds stupid.
Actually though, it’s not that stupid, it’s just kind of desperate. If Microsoft really wants to get people to use IE8 it should rely less on tacky gimmicks and more on making a great product. If you do that, the users will follow — and you won’t even have to pay them.
[thanks Andy]
Lol..what is this? Microsoft or a low end stripper bar?
yea.. those lights etc! waste of electricity for a crap ad from crap M$.
sensationalist title. I’ve learnt to not take Mostly Google’s posts seriously, but this one is his best by far.
Step 1: Pick an easy target. In other words, pick Microsoft.
Step 2: Choose to do selective research. In this case, choose to ignore what is explicitly mentioned on http://feedinga...30;..aphic.aspx
Step 3: This is the fun step. Blow it as out of proportion as you can. Fill the article with your minimally coated hate-talk, citing the limited information that you chose to garner.
Step 4: Ignore the comments that point your errors and stick to your take of the whole thing (”It’s still misleading”). Nobody reads the comments anyways.
MG never fails to point to posts where he has criticized Google to show how he’s a fair reporter. The next time he does that, read those posts. And read the posts where he criticizes MS. See if they’re in the same neutral “journalistic” tone.
MG, you know you lost. Stop backpedaling to save face.
If you absolutely need to call someone a liar today, the only one you can call a liar is Feeding America, and that is only if you don’t trust their figures.
http://feedinga...hunger-map.aspx
From their own math:
25$ donated = 175 meals = 7 meals per $1 donated
$1.15 donated = 8.05 meals
The Feeding America site does state “every $1 you donate, Feeding America helps provide 10 pounds of food and grocery products to men, women and children facing hunger in our country.”
There is nothing you have that can disprove any of that. Everything else is your own opinion or conjecture, but there is absolutely no deception or false advertising.
It’s “articles” like this and writers like yourself that make TechCrunch more of a tabloid than an actual news source.
Um…I think we already did this bit. Welcome to 2 days later.
The funny thing about what the site says how it feeds people seems wierd. You can feed American’s with 7 meals per one dollar donated?
Anway, I think MG was making another point (although maybe a little hard to see) that a billion dollar company that probably spent millions marketing the next IE is using a givaway like this to get people to download their software at a LIMIT OF 1MILLION????
Why not just give the million and be done? Why do this participation goodwill sale that is clearly not explaining just how much is going to be given away?
I think MG caught MS on this one, but the article could have mentioned that the site/charity in question price per meal matches what MS wants to do.
actually, food banks are able to get food for extremely low prices. The local one where I live can get a crate of food for $0.08
the money is *yours, not *your’s
thx.
Hey Fanboy MG, you are never gonna get it right? Just quit your job and do use TC readers a favor! If your argument was fair it would stand but we all know you have an automatic view to find faults in anything MS.
use guys ain’t seen nuthin yet. seriously though, you think this is a good campaign?
Got them more press on here for IE8 so it’s not terrible.
It actually strikes me as reasonably inventive.
Whatever happened to the good ole idea of: “If it’s good, people will use it”, whether or not prize money is involved?
Right, exactly.
So companies should never have sweepstakes or contests?
By that logic then IE6 must be as good as Firefox because they have similar usage numbers. “If it’s good, people will use it,” is about as naive as believing her when she says you’re the best she’s ever had.
Can bash the Microsoft marketing all you want, but they got techcrunch to write about IE8 promotions numerous times in a couple days.
It’s not a “bad” Idea… it’s just Microsoft
So, it’s just a matter of time before someone hacks the code used to display the message, then uses that to gather credit card data or other sensitive information.
Hell, if I were a hacker, I’d be all over that right now.
That is exactly what I was thinking. If I was a hacker I would be putting up pages on the net with
“Congratulations
You have found the $10,000 hidden treasure!
Enter your details here and we will transfer the funds to your account……”
Not very well thought out in my opinion.
Interestingly enough, by using Safari 4 and simply changing the user agent, (from the “develop” menu), I was able to trick the page into thinking that I was using firefox, (whereby I got a slightly different rude message), and then that I was using IE8. So as long as I keep my user agent as IE 8 I might be able to win their stupid promo without ever using IE8 at all.
MG, you (like me) are from CLE, so you really don’t have much of an excuse here… of course this is a good campaign… sweepstakes / contests (particularly during a recession) are like crack for huge swaths of the market.
Watch Robin’s video… even in NYC, there’s not much difference between your average Internet user and your average “Price is Right” viewer… a show hosted by CLE’s Drew Carey.
Hey MG, I like the way you bring things to the spotlight… without you I wouldn’t even know that MS is doing is such dirty stuff… This campaign stinks… And maybe you could do us a favor by updating your post to say that people who use Firefox User Agent Switcher Add-on are still eligible to get the price without using IE8!
youse guys! i love it.
have you ever been to my birth town of Pittsburgh and heard the ‘yountz guys’ version.
It’s not ‘use’ guys it’s YOUSE. Geez, a spurious pun within a regional dialect meme, within a joke, within a response to a response to a blog post,…
i know you are jealous because you don’t get to find that 10k
No, but money talks. IE8 sucks, they should hire better developers.
developers can’t design, they should hire better usability experts!
I think MS promoted the charity more than it promoted IE. I am going to let everybody I know about it. Its a great way to help especially when they can do it so cheaply (of which I would love to know how they do it, but the federal government can’t with Food Stamps)
How do you tell this “genuine” offer from all the fake prize giveaways?
http://www.xkcd.com/570/
Wow, that is really pathetic on their part.
I also love how they say “Upgrade your browser to IE8.” Upgrade? More like downgrade. For them to do something like this is really low. I haven’t seen any other web browser do something like this JUST to get people to use it.
IMO, if they really wanted people to use their web browser, they’d make it better than the rest. They’d save 10 grand doing that.
Well you’re tenacious, I’ll give you that…
Not a massive fan of this campaign, but the tone of the article, given the ones that have gone before it, puts me off more.
It’s all just starting to feel a little bit petty.
Well thank you for at least expressing that in an intelligible way, unlike most
i am not ms hater, but this offer seems pathetic indeed. yes i got the message i won’t get it with my old firefox (but i love firefox) .
Evey new moth IE losses its share from browser market and nothing can help Microsoft to lose its share if not do something like Firefox.
‘boring Safari’ and ‘old Firefox’ ha…
Yeah, if Firefox is old, what’s IE?
exactly! I think they can do better than that…
Umm… classical?
Funny.
In Chrome the message says:
But you’ll never find it using tarnished Chrome.
Haha!
Is “get lost” a message for Safari users maybe?
don’t think so, I was on Camino (Mozilla-built Apple browser)
is that true about chrome? or are you joking?
“It’s a cleverly concealed webpage that only Internet Explorer 8 can view.”
That’s a very big misunderstanding, Microsoft. If only Internet Explorer 8 can view this page, it’s obviously NOT a webpage, because there are fuckin’ STANDARDS for webpages, so any real browser can view it…
and the Twitter update says ’switch off the compatibility mode’ for IE 8 so there is already an issue that has been identified!
ha. nice.
MG, dont you think your articles are becoming a bit bias against Microsoft. I love your work but the anti microsoft thing is getting a bit to much. let us not forget that where we are in terms of technology has a lot to do with msft?
MG you are amazing. You know you might get people’s wrath and still you continue to write about Microsoft and how much you love them
Any other author would have avoided this topic atleast for sometime but you seem to be going on and on. I kinda like that
About the post, in my humble opinion, every company has its ways of promotions and does allocate a certain budget to it. I don’t see any fault in that, on the contrary I have always loved treasure hunts, makes you think
So like the previous 2 Microsoft Posts this one again is very shallow and could have been avoided.
Score : -3
Luckily, fewer and fewer people bother to post comments. Hopefully, that will make him stop.
Well can you at least give me a point for persistence? You said you liked that.
I said in my comments to your previous posts also that I think you are a phenomenal author but maybe not very objective.
Dude, in times when people need cash this is gold!
Im on IE7 and am upgrading to IE8 because of this. Im out of cash, I wouldnt mind $10000 australian
Your chance is one in a million, is it worth it? Play Lottery, cos that’s better and less effort…
MG,
disagree on his one..
We need to stop attacking companies who try to engage us in new and fun ways…
Let them offer us cool prizes, in this case $10,000… We can make a decision.
I already use twitter so it makes sense to take part.. Need to DL IE8
Exactly, If google was doing this for chrome, he would be licking googles balls.
The tech geeks who are anti Microsoft won’t like this campaign (but would secretly download it in hopes of wining and paying off their debt) are a minority. The general or global population would jump at this especially given the economic problems facing almost everyone.
Akshay Jain – June 17th, 2009 at 3:24 am PDT MG you are amazing. You know you might get people’s wrath and still you continue to write about Microsoft and how much you love them
Any other author would have avoided this topic atleast for sometime but you seem to be going on and on. I kinda like that
About the post, in my humble opinion, every company has its ways of promotions and does allocate a certain budget to it. I don’t see any fault in that, on the contrary I have always loved treasure hunts, makes you think
So like the previous 2 Microsoft Posts this one again is very shallow and could have been avoided.
Score : -3
I agree, It’s important to hold every company under the harsh light of objectivity and report about their actions good or bad.
But this campaign for IE from Microsoft is hardly what I consider newsworthy, and Tech crunch and its writers suffer from a bad case of the Silicon Valley warped view of the world.
Hardly worth it.
I just switched from Firefox to IE8 because of the $10000, it worked. I like treasure hunts!!!!!
Ten thousand dollars dollars?
So I decided to go to the site. With my IE8 browser. See twitpic for the results:
http://twitpic.com/7m6vm
My IE8 was detected as IE7. Duh. If they pay me the $10,000 right now I’ll fix their own site so it works.
Got exactly the same error in IE8.
But Lee, we can’t expect *TOO* much from Microsoft can we?
If that $10,000 were given to one of the developers of IE8, the product would have been much better.
Actually I enjoy IE8, and use it as my primary browser. I find it faster and more compatible than former IE clients. Since the majority of my web consumers use this browser – it’s important for me to dogfood what they use. I use other browsers from time to time but this is my primary. I just find it stupid that their own code doesn’t properly detect their own browser, but that’s a marketing mistake not a software development one.
I have 2 minor complaints about IE8 – 1 is that it occasionally requires a second refresh when using links clicked from outside sources (say a tweetdeck clickthrough on a bit.ly link). I think it’s a failure to properly look up either the phishing status or the compatibility status of the target stie.
The second complaint is that the default selection on installation changes default search pages etc. Many users don’t bother going through the “advanced” options on startup and then are annoyed when their default search page or browser is changed. This fault is hardly limited to Microsoft though – chrome, firefox and others will attempt to change your defaults when they install as well.
MG:
“If Microsoft really wants to get people to use IE8 it should rely less on tacky gimmicks and more on making a great product.”
And once you have a great product you use marketing to get people to try it and learn how great it is.
How is this any different than the “Windows Internet Explorer 8, Download Now” banner ad at the top of this post?
I guess you love everything about twitter and google and hate everything about MS, whats wrong with you guys?
Make some posts which adds value and not crap.
M$ needs to make some Software that adds value and not crap. Once again M$ throws money at marketing/gimics instead of improving their products.
wow ..
I love the range of Microsoft’s campaigns to get people to use Internet Explorer 8. They spread from offering to feed the homeless if you download it, to offering you the chance at $10,000 dollars. It’s quite impressive, really.
but it’s not for me ..hahah ..
IMO, I don’t see anything wrong with running a marketing promotion with cold hard cash as a prize – I mean, virtually every company in every industry does that at one time or another.
However, I do think the tone of this IE8 contest should be not so much in-your-face but perhaps a bit more friendlier.
After all, it’s these people who are using tarnished Chrome, old Firefox, and boring Safari that you are trying to convert. It’s not a good start if you piss them off even before they have a chance to try out IE8.
MG,
Im pretty sure you are doing covert PR for Microsoft, (using Reverse psychology, of course).
Because, dude, you are making a miracle happen: google fans defending Microsoft from your posts!
so MS offers people a $10k prize and that is bad, but you think twitter is the greatest thing in the world even though it serves no real purpose.
i’m confused.
I guess I am curious why you bash Microsoft for it’s (played-out) marketing campaign and says it should just concentrate on building a good product. Apple, while making good products, concentrates even more fire power (if not cash) into branding and marketing. Yes, they do a lot better job but invest in marketing.
I agree that the charity drive for IE8 is weak if not cheap, but it is better than nothing is it not? Either way, 3 posts – you’ve made your point on this topic, can we move on?
I wonder how they’re making it IE8-only? If they’re just checking the browser’s reported User-Agent, then you could probably just use something like Firefox’s User Agent Switcher addon to make it look like you’re using IE8.
Total epic fail.
I visit the site in IE8, and it tells me I’m using IE7.
Compatibility view is not turned on.
MG,
Promotions like these are done all the time by many, many, many companies. Why is it all of a sudden an issue for you? I guess it is because it is Microsoft.
What do you call Apple’s 1 million and 1 billion app download contest? What do you call TechCrunch’s contests?
Contests are designed to pull users towards using a specific item that they might not use otherwise. This is the case over here. Download and use IE8 and you might win $10,000. Are you upset that it does not allow users to use Safari or Firefox? Too bad. It is tied to IE8 just like Apple’s app download contests are tied to the iPhone.
The fact that you put down the disadvantage, homeless, and hungry by stating that “if they only used IE8, they could win $10,000.00″ is just plainly untactful. But that is something that we have already gotten used to from any article of yours.
Michael,
You need to put a leash on your boy MG. These types of stories are not in the spirit of TechCrunch and are hurting TC’s reputation for good reporting.
Thanks,
Concerned Reader.
Comapanies with products have always promoted their products by doing some sort of give aways whether it’s cash, cars, trips, etc. This is nothing new, heck go down to your local 7eleven and see how many candybars have some sort of giveaway going on right now.
Suddenly when MS does it it’s considered a really bad thing, even when they are working to help fight hunger.
I don’t consider what MS did anything different than what thousands of other companies do all the time. It’s MS so it’s apparently time to bring out the guns as with many of your other posts about them.
Apple did essentially the same thing with there $100 million fund they set up when they launched the iphone sdk. It’s just as gimiky the way I see it.
How come TC didn’t ream Apple for this? Thinking about it, you complain because you have to use IE8 for this thing from MS, guess what, to use the Apple SDK you have to use a Mac. How is that different?
Here is the TC article for your reference:
http://www.tech...e-applications/
I wish writers would write without bias, as you say let the product speak for itself, let your articles speak for themselves, stop putting personal bias into your articles the will be much more intersting.
Lastly, you think MS needs to stop using “tacky gimmiks”, look at Apple, when was the last time they actually talked about their OS without having to bash MS? Apple makes some nice software and hardware, how about they start talking about it instead of bashing someone else.
+1
+1
& I use a mac
+1
“Actually though, it’s not that stupid, it’s just kind of desperate.”
Much like MG’s frothing-at-the-mouth hate for all things Microsoft.
Or… is that the froth of an ice cold beer on top of a smile… because he sees how desperate M$ is?
This being a technology site, why don’t you report on IE8’s technology and whether or not it is good technology or bad technology? Why are you bringing yourself down to the level of tabloid journalists by writing about everything else other than the technical merits of the product?
If you feel that IE8 is such a bad product, why not report on it? Why not compare it to other browsers? List its strengths and weaknesses.
Why not act like a real reporter and not someone who is only thinking about the headlines.
Be a real technology reporter and start writing meaningful articles instead of the garbage that you have been churning out for the last couple of months.
In hope that MG updates his post with this, to show how stupid and desperate MS really is, cos their website really relies only on user agent strings as of this writing…)
From the House of the great Indian Cracker comes the howto to win this prize with any browser on any platform (even your mobile browser) without the extra time consuming effort of downloading, installing and configuring the IE8 malware…
The first part explains how to make it work on firefox.
The second part explains how to do it with any other browser.
Here is the first part:
Part I – Make it work with Firefox…
Step 1: Install the Firefox User agent Switcher:
https://addons....irefox/addon/59
and restart browser. (Time taken: 30 secs)
Step 2: Select from Tools > User agent switcher > Options > Options… (5 seconds)
Step 3: Select User Agents and press the Add button:
(2 seconds)
Step 4: Key in the following details to the corresponding fields and press OK…(Cut and paste)
Description:
Malware8
User Agent:
Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 6.1; Win64; x64; Trident/4.0)
App Name:
Microsoft Internet Explorer
App Version:
4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 6.1; Win64; x64; Trident/4.0)
Platform:
Win64
(Time taken: 10 seconds)
Step 5: Close the Dialog Windows. and Select Malware8 from Tools > User Agent Switcher,
Visit http://www.micr...e8/competition/ to see the result!
(time taken 5 seconds)
After use, switch to Tools > User Agent Switcher > Default.
Part II: Other browsers…
Step 1: Google for user agent switcher
Step 2: Install it.
Step 3: use
Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 6.1; Win64; x64; Trident/4.0)
as user agent string…
Step4: Visit http://www.micr...e8/competition/ and mock them!
END RESULT
Before: But you’ll never find it using that browser.
(So get rid off it, or get lost.)
After: We’ve buried blah blah…
So never lose your trusted browser again, keep it safe in your pocket and don’t trade it for malware!
Cool!!
They’d have to pay me $10,000 to make me use IE8 (or any IE) ever again since I found Firefox.
Gadget Sleuth, you’re such a Baller Shot Caller.
Microsoft has a bad habit of trying to promote stupid stuff using foolish strategies and eventually giving up and going back to working on making their dumb product better. Happened with Vista.. remember how vigorously they were pushing it? They made everyone believe that Vista (that piece of junk) was the OS of the future. Now they are doing the same with IE8.
Do they really think that any sane person who got the taste of working with powerful and user friendly browsers like crome & firefox would bother making the switch back to the dark ages? Have they even bothered finding out how many of their own employees use IE8 when they are not in office? (Of-course guessing that they have a rule or something that they will fire anyone who uses an alternate browser).
Had I got this message by email I would have immediately deleted it considering another chain mail.
First, paying you to search. Now paying you to install a browser. On the right track to discover antimatter, I mean, antimoney.
Microsoft will fail for sure. And this is because their politic to rule the computer world.
Actually they even not lead anymore.
Other browser are doing the things right and everyone want to be like that, but it seems that Microsoft still think they can enforce IE.
Blind, blind
I agree, it isn’t as stupid as it sounds. It’s about fourteen times as stupid as it sounds.
This is an aggressive, vindictive and extremely shallow marketing campaign by Microsoft – the only people they’ll get on board are those who don’t even realise there are alternatives to IE – yes, sadly such people still exist.
I find the disparaging adjectives they attach to other browsers strangely hypocritical, too…
“old Firefox”? IE is much older than Firefox.
“tarnished Chrome”? Chrome hasn’t been around enough to be considered ‘tarnished’. You’d be hard pressed to think up a better word to describe IE, though, especially with its inability to conform to web standards.
“boring Safari”? I’ll tell you what’s boring. Releasing browser after browser after browser claiming ‘revolutionary improvements’ when what you really mean is ‘fixed the stuff that was broken in the previous version’ – stuff that has been happily working in other browsers for years now.
And best of all, if you’re on IE7, it simply says “Windows Internet Explorer 7″… I guess “Windows” is insulting enough…
Microsoft should really be concentrating on building, developing and designing a decent browser – starting from scratch, if necessary – rather than trying to convince people that their browser is better than the competition with spurious, hypocritical hyperbole and misleading marketing campaigns.
BTW, just read this post and checked out that site. In the terms and services, it says:
Entry is open to Australian residents aged 16 years and over only.
So, the hungry elsewhere please don’t even bother….
The promo site tells you to follow Twitter or http://www.teng...sburiedhere.com – until this morning this site could not be reached. Now it is redirected back to the competition site http://www.micr...e8/competition/ !