Barney's Blog

Blog archive

Scoble Bites the Hand That Made Him

I do this all the time, but for some reason it bugs me when someone, besides myself, who's never run a company tees off on those who do.

Robert Scoble, who was paid by Microsoft simply to blog, became famous because Microsoft paid him simply to blog -- so famous, in fact, that he left the company that helped make him famous and went out on his own.

Now Scoble thinks he knows more about success on the Internet than Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer and Ray Ozzie put together.

According to Scoble, whose sole achievement on the Internet is writing a blog (not inventing the concept!) says that Microsoft is failing in search and Web advertising. Not just failing, but s*&^!cking.

Hmm. Last time I checked, IE had about 90 percent market share, XP, Vista and Office all have myriad Internet hooks, and Microsoft has an impressive line of Web development languages and tools. That clearly doesn't s*&^!ck.

And by the way, since when did the "s" word cease to be a swear? Do the folks that toss this word around forget what it actually means? I'm no prude, but it bugs me when 8-year-olds use the word as casually as they use "Mommy."

Now that I see how distasteful I find Scoble's criticisms, I am actually rethinking my own tone and style. Do you want to see a kinder, gentler Doug Barney? Let me know at [email protected].

Posted by Doug Barney on March 22, 2007


Featured