Microsoft tries advertising with new messenger and spaces

"In a bid to increase advertising dollars from free Internet services, Microsoft has integrated hip advertising into their messenger and MSN spaces. Microsoft hopes to attract users who are so taken by the advertising campaigns that they choose to associate themselves with the brand much like a person might buy a Starbucks Corp. coffee mug."

This is what they are saying but to me it looks more like a desparate way to catch up with the latest game that Google and Yahoo are playing.

It looks good if you like to associate yourself with brands. When you are one of those guys and girls that feel hip when they are seen in this and hop when they hang around there - just as Charlene Li with Forrester Research states.

Does this make it right? Nope - to me, it looks like Microsoft is still trying to impose on users what the giant think is correct not, what the users actually want - conversations on the Internet, undisturbed by advertising.

(By Asia Business Consulting)