IndustryBallmer On How They “MSN You” in Holland, Korea & Google Was Curing Cancer

Ballmer On How They "MSN You" in Holland, Korea & Google Was Curing Cancer

Gary wrote
earlier of Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer recently denying any chair throwing at a
conference, but Good Morning Silicon Valley
highlighted
another quote from Ballmer that caught my eye: "People say ‘I’m going to MSN
you’ in Holland and Korea."

Really? I’m still sort of reeling in disbelief from the entire
A9d it
mention on the OC earlier this year. I thought perhaps Ballmer was referring to
MSN Messenger. I can more readily see people in Holland or Korea saying they
"MSN you" and meaning sending an instant message. Heck, I could see anyone
anywhere saying that. But the News.com
story quoting Ballmer
makes it clear this was about web search, as I’ve bolded:

He pointed to the strength of Microsoft’s MSN brand outside of the United
States as proof that the company is making strides in the Web search market.
"People say ‘I’m going to MSN you’ in Holland and Korea.

I couldn’t resist adding to this other comment he made about Google:

If you read the papers today, other than curing cancer, Google will do
everything.

Actually, Google WAS curing cancer at one time.
Google Compute,
launched
back in 2002, let Google Toolbar users donate processor time to
Folding@home, a Stanford protein
research project with cancer cures as one of its goals.

Interestingly, I guess Google stopped providing this support around 2003.
That’s the copyright at the bottom of the Google Compute page, which says the
toolbar no longer can be used to help the project. Hmm — opportunity perhaps
for Microsoft?

Postscript: Reader Dennis Pallet who lives in Holland writes:

I just read your blog entry about how Dutch people say "I’m going to MSN
you" when they talking about MSN web search, but this is absolute nonsense.

I live in The Netherlands myself, and most people have never even heard of
MSN Search. The phrase refers to MSN Messenger. Almost everyone here seems to
think MSN = MSN Messenger, and don’t even know about the MSN brand.

Like I said, the News.com story made the quote out as if it was a reference
to web search, but perhaps there was some confusion. It certainly makes a lot
more sense to hear it being connected to MSN Messenger.

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