DaveNet: Thursday, July 3, 1997; by Dave Winer.

Microsoft on Microsoft Money

From Kevin Unangst, a product manager for Microsoft Internet Explorer, in response to Lost in ActiveX, 7/1/97 and Microsoft's Money, 7/2/97:

Saw your July 1 edition and wanted to clarify a few things about the Microsoft/Newbot issues you bring up.

We weren't involved in any way with the development of any of their software. We sponsored the introduction of the product, and in exchange, Newbot was available exclusively to IE users for the first six weeks it was out.

The analogy I would make would be holding a special preview showing of a new movie for our customers before the general release. We're not restricting anyone else's access, just offering an early look.

As for the fact that NewBot is only on Windows -- if that's the case, it's a decision Wired made without our involvement. If you check the Newbot page, they're hard at work on Mac and Unix versions, and Newbot now works with Netscape's browsers and IE. It will be great when it comes out for other platforms - we've got lots of IE users on Win 3.1 and Mac as well.

Microsoft sponsors a lot of content on the web. Why? We're a web product, and the web is where our audience is or wants to be. It makes sense for us to sponsor content to encourage IE use. In no way do we restrict the growth -- we're just offering benefits to IE users.

Kevin Unangst
Product Manager, Internet Explorer