Browsing for the Better?
I was wrong. Any marketing isn’t necessarily better than none. Microsoft’s “Browsing for the Better” campaign is just weird. I like the download Internet Explorer 8 and Microsoft will donate eight meals to the hungry concept. But the Better Browsing videos are creepy.
“Do you suffer from F.O.M.S.—fear of missing something?” Perhaps you have S.H.Y.N.E.S.S.—sharing heavily yet not enough sharing still. Microsoft has a cure for you in IE8. The IE8 videos are clearly Web promotional rather than meant for TV.
The videos star Dean Cain, the aging but still handsome star of 90s comedy drama “Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman. Another 90s actor, comedian Bobcat Goldthwait, directed the first two videos. At least two more are to come.
Viral video critcism aside, the charity aspect will get some people to download IE8. There’s something familiar to the approach. It reminds of the Windows Live Messenger i’m campaign. I’m all for charitable marketing. People feel good for nothing more than using a product. Giving doesn’t get much easier. But does it mean anything?
My answer is no, in the larger context. There I’m making a social rather than marketing or technical observation. Giving really should be giving. The “i’m campaign” lets people tout their giving, but they really didn’t give anything. It’s a feel-good thing without any real substance. Also—and this is a purely subjective assertion—shouldn’t the best giving be without anyone knowing about it? Well, other than you and the Internal Revenue Service.
I’m not scoffing at Microsoft using charity as a marketing tool. It’s good business to give back something. But I would like to see something where people contribute more and quite possibly feel even better for it. Encourage people to use social media services like Microsoft Vine to participate in charity efforts. Reward efforts, even using contests, by giving away copies of Windows 7.
Circling back to Microsoft’s browser, as a Windows 7 Beta and now Release Candidate user, I have abandoned IE8. It’s not for want. The browser simply stalls too many times while opening pages. Right now, I’m using Google Chrome, which is wicked fast and rock-solid stable. I would use IE8 if it worked right.
But over the next couple days I’m going to give IE8 another try. I have a new theory about my problems. Last week, Windows Live Messenger stopped connecting to the Internet. I later noticed that Zune software wouldn’t log in to Zune Marketplace, either. So I tried logging into my account using WLM from my wife’s computer. There was no problem. So I asked myself: What’s different about our computers? Cookies.
Following a practice started with Windows XP in 2001, I set IE to block third-party cookies. WLM and Zune both use the browsing engine. So I changed the third-party setting to “accept.” Now WLM and Zune connect. Could third-party cookies by my problem with IE8? I’ll answer the question in a future post.
Do you have a Web browser story that you’d like told? Please email Joe Wilcox: oddlytogether at gmail dot com.
I’m getting some similar IE8 experiences as you, it seems. Chrome seems very nice, and I’ve also found the new Safari very pleasant.
Have you had any experience with the new Safari?
It’s nice to have browser wars again.
IE8 is far better than any of the previous versions of IE, but it’s still slower than WebKit (Opera, Safari) or Opera. And I’ve found a rendering bug or two that Microsoft still refuses to address.
These MS ads never seem to air in Europe, and now, it seems, IE8 won’t be airing with Windows 7 either.
Too much money and not enough common sense. IE8 the browser for cat crazy people. I like Chrome too, its my default browser.
i always block 3rd party cookies, too. once in a great while i have to add a site or unblock a site to get it to work, but i never allow all cookies.
but i always export the reg key that holds them and then import them when i install the os again.
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\P3P]
[...] the original post: Browsing for the Better? Partager ce [...]
[...] the rest here: Browsing for the Better? Partager ce [...]
I don’t know, Joe, I thought the ads were pretty good. I’m in the twenty-somethings and these were clearly targeted at my demographic. For that purpose, they work.
I probably wouldn’t put them on TV, but if the ads were designed to go viral, they hit the nail on the head.
[...] my post, “Browsing for the Better?,” commenter Mike corrected me: I don’t know, Joe, I thought the ads were pretty good. I’m [...]
Slowness – now that’s something I dont agree with, specially on the new hardware that we are being delivered. I use Windows 7 RC with IE8 and it works like a charm.
If you are using new hardware then you need to run the new tests on it, not just run websites from the 1990s.
Here are the current tests – 90% either do not work on IE 8 or are incredibly slow.
http://www.chromeexperiments.com/