Look how old this is! I post at SearchCommander.com now, and this post was published 17 years 3 months ago. This industry changes FAST, so blindly following the advice here *may not* be a good idea! If you're at all unsure, feel free to hit me up on Twitter and ask.
Earlier in the month I applied to the beta program for the Microsoft Webmaster portal when I first heard it was coming out, and yesterday, I finally received my invitation for registration.
You know the way your Aunt or neighbor forwards you those jokes in e-mails where you can see everybody elses e-mail address? Well imagine my surprise when I got my e-mail, and there in the “to” field was everyone that Microsoft they sent this message to.
I can’t imagine that the list I see is really everyone that they sent it to, because it’s only a few dozen people, but still, to have a bunch of email addresses copied in the “to” field seems absurd for a company like Microsoft, and at first I thought it was an idiotic oversight.
After looking at the list of people in the to field, many for whom I recognized the domain names and consider competitors, I decided I needed to sign up immediately rather than wait to read what others have to say about it, so I did.
Ahh – Only then did I catch the clever marketing move at the expense of my privacy… Nobody at Microsoft could really be so inexperienced at email etiquette that they would “accidentally” include the email addresses of so many people, could they?
PS – Since signing up, I haven’t heard a word. I didn’t even get taken to a thank you page, but right back to the Live search home page. Huh…
