M$ buying bloggers?

[Dr Mordrid]

http://www.theregister.com/2007/01/02/microsoft_free_ferarri_pc/

Microsoft accused of trying to buy bloggers

Generous giving

By Gavin Clarke
Published Tuesday 2nd January 2007 17:28 GMT

A Microsoft stunt handing out brand spanking new laptops with Windows Vista to selected bloggers has backfired with claims that Microsoft tried to "buy" bloggers.

At least six bloggers each received a sleek, black, highly specified Ferrai machine running the as-yet-to-be released Windows Vista from Microsoft and Acer just before Christmas.

At least one recipient claimed his machine was a gift. Microsoft watcher Long Zheng called the PC a "Christmas present [that was] officially" a review machine. He congratulated Microsoft on its "kudos for thinking about the little guys" - meaning that it is targeting bloggers instead of the usual PC trade publications that make it on the big vendors' gift list.

That was enough for the Blogosphere, which sniffed a crude attempt at bribery and bgan a debate on the ethics of accepting free gifts from IT companies. Veteran blogger, and former Microsoft employee Robert Scoble summed it up: "Now THAT is my idea of PayPerPost" - the idea of paying bloggers to post, only using cash instead of gifts.
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[Jessterw]

I really don't see a problem with this. Microsoft isn't the first to do it, nor will they be the last. I you look at who the bloggers that received these machines are and what they primarily cover, it makes a lot of sense that MS would go out of the way to provide them with nice machines on which to review Vista.

This almost seems like old news now.

[schmosef]

There's a pretty good discussion of the issue at Joel on Software: link

Personally, I agree that as long as there's full disclosure it's not a big deal.

[Jessterw]

You mean a commentary on it

I don't necessarily disagree with Joel either, but it's one of those things that each person has to decide on their own. The simple fact is that tech companies (and others) have long handed out "review" units or incentives to reviewers and the like in an effort to get them to write about their product. It's long been established that doing so doesn't garner one a good review by default. The reviewers who do take such offerings as bribes have also been found out eventually, if not immediately.

There's a lot of grey area involved, but I still don't see anything inherently wrong with it.

[DGhost]

I pretty much agree with what Jessterw said. It's a long standing tradition and the only thing they did differently was send them to bloggers instead of tech review sites. It doesn't nessicarily nessicate good publicity, and I think the blog community is fickle (catty) enough that anyone who wrote an overly positive review would get roasted.

But... eh. One thing I have learned from the internet is usually the people talking the most shit are the people with the least experience. If nothing else, it makes sense to send review units to some of the people who are not MS supporters so that perhaps they might have hands on experience to change their minds. Probably not, but oh well.

whatever...

[Technoid]

MS buying bloggers? why not? they are buying forum members....

[az]

What? Why aren't they buying me? Hey, MS! Over here!

[Technoid]

What? Why aren't they buying me? Hey, MS! Over here!

You need to pro MS troll a lot more

[Jammrock]

Maybe this is why Gurm is so pro-MS?

[Jessterw]

Here I thought he was Balmer's illegitimate love child...

[Jon P. Inghram]

I've asked him, but Sasq refuses to change my user name to "I♥Microsoft".