| Lessons Learned from Microsoft |
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| Monday, 08 September 2008 | |
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For those of you who own web domains, you know that you need to keep track of your expiration dates. If not, some enterprising person is going to grab them. It appears this is the case with a site Microsoft used for an Office promotion.
In late 2006, Microsoft had “The Power Together” campaign where if you watched several videos you got a free license to Microsoft Office or Vista. It was a limited offering to promote both products. Instead of getting a boxed edition or software CD, you got a small pamphlet with details. It listed which products were included, software download location and a product key. While I saved my pamphlet, I never saved the original download file. (Yes, that was a mistake on my part.) When I needed to install the software on the new tablet to replace the Student edition, I headed to the URL in the pamphlet: www.OfficePro2007Download.com. The problem was the site didn’t look like the typical Microsoft site.  Click to enlarge I figured I transposed characters as usual and tried again. Actually, I tried on three different browsers. I think I was in denial mode. I’m not sure what happened to the domain or if Microsoft was the original owner. The domain could’ve belonged to a promotional partner. It seems someone clever bought the domain and is reaping profits from the display ads as I don't see any content. Fortunately, you can still get the required download file(s) which will work with your product key. The URL I used was http://www.trymicrosoftoffice.com/. You may have to provide contact information again in addition to your email address.
My guess is this domain will not get out of Microsoft’s control. Unlike the previous one, it doesn’t have a version in the domain name so they could use it for a long time. As it stands now, it looks like they have this one registered until June of 2010. I’ll admit I was annoyed by the experience. But, the incident reminded me that I should maintain those download files and watch my domain expiration dates. |
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| Last Updated ( Tuesday, 04 November 2008 ) |
