The Machine Marches On

Great stuff on wired.com today: "Hide Your IPod, Here Comes Bill". I read this article with a high degree of amusement. As the Microsoft machine marches on, taking over market after market, it is nice to see them stymied, as evidenced by their own employees. Microsoft employees tend to be a smart lot -- so if they are buying iPods in droves, then it seems like management should try and figure out why, instead of simply banning the practice.

From what I've read about the "PlaysForSure" program, it seems like Microsoft has solved a lot of the reasons why non-iPod mp3 players have sucked on Windows. So eventually, with this software in place, the non-iPods may start to take over the market (just like wintel PCs before them). But for right now, Microsoft has got nuthin'.

But meanwhile, the machine continues to march. I had a quick look at Microsoft's new "MSN Search" the other day, and at first glance, it appears to be a total Google rip-off -- at least from a UI perspective. It looks like the search results that it is returning still aren't as complete as Google's. But how long will it be before Microsoft can out-Google Google?

sigh.

-Andy.