

Microsoft offers ad-free Bing for the classroom to battle Google - manishsp
http://news.yahoo.com/microsoft-offers-ad-free-bing-classroom-battle-google-102402977.html

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brudgers
" _Google in December announced a program to give its Chromebook computers to
schools for $99 each._ "

That's an interesting use of "give."

Anyway, the idea of an ad free search engine hits right at the heart of
Google's business. While I know many adults who are unconcerned about their
own online privacy, many of them have serious concerns about their children's.

Google is entangled with Schmidt's creepy line.

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Kylekramer
I don't see how targeting children with an adfree product with the stated
intention of turning them into lifetime Bing users (with ads) is improving on
Google's creepiness.

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r00fus
I don't think Microsoft's main goal is to indoctrinate the youth (though
that's a desirable aim for them, I'm sure).

Their goal is to "cut off the air supply" to Google… just like Google's goal
with ChromeOS (and the $249 Chromebooks) is to cut off Microsoft/Apple's
profits.

As consumers, sometimes we get a nice deal out of the infighting.

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chollida1
This was probably a pretty easy decision for Bing to make. Really, how much ad
revenue are they missing by not showing adds to students at school:)

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barista
Actually I wonder why doesn't Microsoft do it for every one? No tracking, no
ads just plain old good results. Google has been attacking Microsoft with its
scorched earth strategy in many areas (google docs, chrome OS, etc.) And given
that google is just a one trick pony, this might affect them more.

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archangel_one
Attacking someone in many areas is a pretty neat trick for a one-trick pony to
learn.

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chollida1
I'm not sure if you are trolling but..

If you are seriously calling Microsoft a one trick pony please consider the
wide variety of services, software and hardware that they provide.

\- developes Desktop, Tablet, phone and server OS's

\- develops Development tools

\- designs their own keyboards and mouse hardware

\- sells a video game console

\- runs one of the largest online email providers

\- runs a huge online gameing network

\- runs one of the largest SAAS/PAAS networks(Azure)

\- develops one of the most popular web servers

\- develops their own web sdk(asp.net)

\- runs a huge network of conferences

\- runs their own book publishing arm ....

I've got another 10 or so off the top of my head. Microsoft has many warts,
but in no way can you call it a one trick pony.

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archangel_one
No, I'm replying to someone who simultaneously called Google a one-trick pony
and suggested that they're attacking Microsoft on many fronts, which seemed
like an odd kind of thing for a one-trick pony to be able to do.

Don't know why you got the idea I was referring to Microsoft at all.

Edit: To clarify, and before I get another laundry list of achievements, I
clearly don't think Google is one either.

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ds2600
I believe that user was referring to Google as a one trick pony in regards to
their primary revenue stream.

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jlgreco
The (ahem) reputation that Bing's image search is starting to get is probably
not going to help them with this initiative.

~~~
venomsnake
Can you elaborate? People are turning for Bing for image searches for
"research" purposes since google disabled the disabling of the content filter
in the US?

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jlgreco
Apparently people find Bing to be wildly better than Google when searching for
porn. It is beginning to get something of a reputation for this.

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swalsh
Ah the McDonalds strategy, hook em in as kids keep em as customers when
they're adults.

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brudgers
More relevant, this has long been Apple's strategy. One which has evolved from
primary education onto college campuses by following the money - money in the
form of student loans.

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fatjokes
I don't know if that's what got people hooked though. I remember using Apples
as a kid at school, hated them, used PC's up until college and Apple
introduced the Mac Air, at which point I switched and haven't looked back.

I don't know if it's the McDonald's strategy either---kids love McDonalds,
then grow out of them.

I'd say it's more like the tobacco industry's strategy. Most smokers I know
got hooked as kids and couldn't quit after growing up.

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iterationx
As part of the program, Microsoft will also offer free Surface tablets...

Because they can't sell them... this is just PR garbage.

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RyanZAG
Not sure I understand this - if a school so desperately wants ad-free search,
just deploy an adblock plugin to the school's browsers? It's a very strange
thing to 'give away' as an incentive.

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brudgers
Microsoft is providing an institutional scaled solution to solve institutional
scale problems. Students don't just search on school computers. They search
from home, and often their school's website serves as an entry portal - eg.
the student fires up the browser on their home computer with a link to a
school or class web page. This provides a familiar starting point for
continuing the lesson from home.

Why? Well that's a reasonably safe way for parents to allow computer use with
less supervision. It's not quite a walled garden, but at least there's a
shared interest among the adults.

In other words, Microsoft is helping school districts solve the problem of
solving problems for parents - and without having to stipulate which browser
people use at home or in the classroom - many mobile browsers do not allow
plugins.

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aroch
But does it matter _that much_...Most schools are using Win7 (or, sadly,
Vista) at this point and I would wager most set IE as the default browser. As
most educational networked software targets IE. Many of the 'secured' browser
based exam companies base their model around IE. And most schools don't allow
you to change the default browser (at least in a way that persists across
logins)

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brudgers
At home, kids use iPads and Android phones, etc. Schools often provide a
portal and children use that portal both out of habit and at the direction of
their parents.

And as public institutions [under the US system] parents look to the schools
both to provide proper resources for completing out of school assignments and
are willing to assign blame for technological issues which are for practical
matter beyond the school's control - i.e what comes across the student's
browser while sitting at the kitchen table.

Outside the bubble, most people are not that tech savvy and the trend is
toward passive use of browsing devices not managing plug-ins and maintaining
browser side scripts. And outside the bubble, people use school websites as
portals - the schools are setting them up that way.

Microsoft is marketing something simple - if you get advertizing you clicked
on the wrong link. That can be explained to the principal, the teacher in the
classroom, the student, their dad, and the president of the school board - and
without much more than those literal words.

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Selfcommit
I can't help but feel that this is typical of Microsoft's sales/PR team.

Generate a false problem: "You don't wan't ads on your search engine do you!?"

Claim to have a solution: "You can use Bing! We don't have ads for students!"

As a systems admin for a large school district, I'm very comfortable stating
that what Microsoft and Apple offer to education is a joke compared to
Google's offerings.

Not even comparable products.

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avsbst
I'm curious, what do you feel "Google's offerings" are when it comes to
education?

I'm asking because besides search, and the ability to search effectively,
which I think is a very necessary skill for a modern education, I've never
considered Google as company with educational offerings.

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Selfcommit
Chromebooks solve 90% of the issues the average school district faces (How do
I build collaborative works?(Docs/Drive) How do I ensure student files are
protected? (Drive) How do I handle deployment? Imaging and servicing 3000-7000
windows computers requires a pretty substantial professional IT department in
the business world - I've worked in several schools that handle that volume
with teams ranging from 2 to 5.

So when Google comes along and says "Hey, for $199 here's a system that has an
expected life of 2 years, minimal deployment overhead and integrated services
that connect to your existing AD infrastructure"

It's a no brainer. Chromebooks will, without question, be dominant in schools
everywhere in the next 2 years.

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Simple1234
On Yahoo news? Really?

