[geeks] Flicker users u in arms over MS acquisition...

[Brian Dunbar]

Phil Stracchino wrote:
> James Fogg wrote:
>> I worked for Vicinity when it was consumed by Microsoft. They had big
>> promises, big plans and said they wanted to do right by Vicinity
>> customers. In the end they forced VCNT customers to adopt the vastly
>> inferior MS geolocation API (MSN Maps, essentially) and pissed off the
>> customers who then went to Mapquest.
>>
>> They also immediately killed our public free interface (MapBlast), which
>> got as much traffic as MapQuest back in the day.
> 
> So *that's* what happened to MapBlast ...
> 
>> MS wanted only one thing, one less competitor. They couldn't give away
>> their geolocation services (literally), so they bought ours and burned
>> it down. I've been inside the machine and from what I've seen I don't
>> expect Yahoo will fair any better.
>>
>> MS is simply pure evil.
> 
> Microsoft wants to be the sole supplier of computer software worldwide.
>  End of story.
> 

When you put it like that ... well it's rather elegant: a business doing
what it does (maximi$e profit$) the most efficient way it can.

Like a Great White or a rattle snake - awesome predators.

Of course no one wants to swim with a Great White and if you've got a
rattler under the house it's time to get a shotgun.

-- 
Brian Dunbar
System Administrator
Liftport - The Space Elevator Company

brian.dunbar at liftport.com
aim: bdunbar1967

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Meaningful Work or Death.
Any other form of existence doesn't interest me.

Hugh Macleod