Microsoft's Death Rattle

Begging your customers never work.

Bribing your customers never work.

Paying...them...to...use...your...product...each n' every time...isn't...a customer-acquisition plan. It's just the noise you create to muffle your death rattle from the ears of your customers and employees.

That's not my quote.

Leopard Dog wrote that comment at TechCrunch's debate over Microsoft's decision to pay users of its search engine. It's a great quote.

And he's right.  The noise of the announcement and the ensuing hype and debate at TechCrunch is just that: mere noise to hide the death rattle of Microsoft.

Microsoft?  You're one of the world's largest companies, with one of the largest collections of smart people. The market is $16 billion and will double by 2010. You currently have 9.1% of this market and you're losing even that small slice.

And you've engaged your corporate brain trust, incentivized them with an understanding of this opportunity...and this is what is spit out. We'll pay our customers to use our product....!

Microsoft, let me suggest another idea. Here's Seth Godin talking to your competitor, Google. Listen to his description of Google's plan. It's complicated. But it's boiled down to this: Google gave their audience something worth talking about. And they did it...for free.

It's had some success.