davidof - 12:47 pm on Sep 28, 2005 (gmt 0)

> If MSN is smart enough to make a difference, they'll watch closely the quality of the sites AND offer tools to publishers to fine tune their offering (e.g. minimum price for ads, excellent statistics). In a first step, advertisers will benefit from this, and subsequently the publishers will benefit as well.

MSN don't seem to have been very smart so far but better statistics would be a nice feature. I'm not sure about where the minimum price for ads is a good thing as it makes the market less dynamic.

My main worry about Microsoft is their control freakery and their willingness to leave their partners stranded if it suits them. They are also not very hot on innovation, for the last few years just copying every fad that seems to work. In short, I trust them a lot less than Google. They are not a company born of the Internet just a large rapacious bottom feeder trying to hoover up any revenues they don't already own.