Strange that it should take so long for something like this to happen. After all, it's been years since those of us using Microsoft's (Nasdaq: MSFT) Windows OS have had to put up with drive-spinning, performance-sucking poltergeists. The ghosts in our machines -- in addition to usual, OS belches -- were often tiny, little spyware programs, insidious code designed to run in the background without our consent, beaming information back to whatever crapweasel developed it.
Well, better late to the party than a complete no-show, I guess. Today, Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft announced it had acquired private Giant Company Software, maker of anti-spy and spam-blocking software.
Finally.
On the one hand, you can understand Microsoft's hesitancy to cope with this problem. After all, the usual way to contract spyware is to install shady freeware: file-swappers and the like. Troll the Net, and you'll find more than a little of the "you get what you deserve" attitude toward punk kiddies whose machines end up snarled and useless. Moreover, there have been free and commercial anti-spy programs available for years, such as Ad-Aware, Winpatrol, and dozens of others, along with offerings from better-known firms such as Yahoo! (Nasdaq: YHOO). Because of products like this, nerds like me don't have spyware problems.
On the other hand, most computer users aren't nerds like me. They can barely figure out which end of the mouse to keep on the desk. They download plenty of spyware, don't know how to get rid of it, and the headlines prove they'll blame most of their computer woes (user-induced or not) on Redmond. As head whipping boy, it's in Microsoft's best interest to provide end-to-end security and convenience, if possible.
The firm promises to release beta versions of the anti-spyware tool within a month. In that respect, this effort looks a lot like the user-friendly desktop-searching MSN toolbar, released earlier this week in an attempt to keep a share of the Internet's curious eyeballs from migrating permanently to Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) or Ask Jeeves (Nasdaq: ASKJ).
The upcoming tech war is for hearts as well as minds. It may be huge, and it may be slow, but Microsoft seems to have figured this out.
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Seth Jayson
is ready for angry email from the Microsoft hatas, but he's duty-bound to inform them that, at the time of publication, he had no position in any company mentioned. View his stock holdings and Fool profile
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