Saturday, December 17, 2005

Intuit does AOL Yes, I know, it's Google that's buying 5% of AOL, but Intuit seems to have adopted AOL's tactics of blanketing the country in CDs. But these aren't exactly free. I received a TurboTax Premier CD in the mail yesterday, marked "Welcome Back!" and looking for all the world like something I had ordered. But I didn't order it. Far as I can tell, if I install the software I will be prompted for a credit card number, at which point I will have bought it. But I'm not going to do that. First, I have used H&R Block's TaxCut software for many years now, and I'm pretty happy with it. I tried Intuit's TurboTax once; the next year Intuit put some ugly copy-protection measures on TurboTax, generating tremendous ill-will from users, comparable to the noise over Sony's stupidity this year. I vowed to go back to TaxCut, and did. Second, I'm stunned at Intuit's audacity in sending out these CDs. The program (the Premier version) costs $70, way more than I intend to spend on tax software. The phrasing on the box is misleading, implying that I've already made a decision to purchase the product. That's insulting. This is just plain nuts. Who does Intuit think they're selling to? Maybe the same folks who fall for phishing scams and buy from spam email. Phthpt! Intuit has lost several notches of respect with this move. Thanks, Intuit, for the free CD case and nifty coaster. Later: one point in Intuit's favor: TurboTax appears to run on Mac, TaxCut doesn't. But hey, that's why I keep a Windows box around, for those few important programs that aren't cross-platform. 10:52:01 AM    Questions? Comments? Flames? []

Google Off-Base I knew there was something odd about Google Base, like why would I willingly give away something I've written so that Google can make money from it. Now this: Off Base.  Jeremie: Content hosted on Google Base is exclusive, and not available to any other search engines. . . [The Doc Searls Weblog] Yep, something's wrong with this picture. 10:14:47 AM    Questions? Comments? Flames? []

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