Jethro Higgins
Social Media Analyst
"All warfare is based on deception."
- Sun Tzu, The Art of War
Microsoft has announced that for IE10 "do not track" will be the default setting. For many internet users this is a welcome move; however the repercussions in the advertising industry could be monumental. According to this article from adage.com, Microsoft’s decision has sent the industry into an uproar.
"Be extremely subtle even to the point of formlessness.
Be extremely mysterious even to the point of soundlessness.
Thereby you can be the director of the opponent's fate."
- Sun Tzu, The Art of War
Chief Privacy Officer Brendon Lynch wrote in a blog post, "We ultimately concluded that the appropriate privacy-friendly default for DNT in IE10 is 'on,'" Microsoft appears to be the champion of the public with this decision, offering users strong default privacy settings, but it doesn't take an MBA to immediately realize that this is a business move and, obviously, was made taking corporate accounting into account (no pun intended). Serving ads for Microsoft, as described by adage.com, is a "money-losing sideshow", but for the industry leader and Microsoft's largest competitor Google, serving ads is the mainstay of their financial model. This decision to turn "do not track" to auto on is an aggressive move, and it indicates that Microsoft is on the war path.
"To know your Enemy, you must become your Enemy."
― Sun Tzu, The Art of War
At the same time, Microsoft has also announced their new tablet, Surface, which is another bold move into stiff competition, this time with Apple. Surface appears, at least on the outside, to be very iPadesque, but with a couple of key built-in features that give it a competitive advantage. The most notable of which are the keyboard, angled camera and kick stand. If it interfaces with Xbox and/or the Kinect, this gamer is going to be waiting in line come ?/?/soon (no word yet on release date).
Post Continued Tomorrow...
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