I am all for free speech and the right of competitors to voice their opinions, no matter how misguided and ignorant they may be, but it boggles my imagination that Microsoft Canada would bid so high on all Linux-related keywords that the following confrontational ad would suddenly appear on almost every page of my site, and almost every time ...

Linux News
Why is Windows cheaper than Linux?
Get all the facts Now! (sic)

There are variations: Sometimes they call their page Open Source News, and the second line changes in grammar but never in message, but it always leads to the same destination, microsoft.ca/getthefacts, a con-job if you've ever seen one. Microsoft is spending more on this ploy than any other advertiser I have ever encountered in my AdSense experience ... so why not let's make them pay for their blunder?

I do have the option in AdSense to ban any vendor from my site, and rest assured I will ban this vendor from my site, not because I don't think they have a right to speak, but because it is clearly spam when the ad appears on every page of a competitor's website. Fairness has limits.

let's turn it around and send a message back to Microsoft

Before I ban them, and all their other national TLD masks, please

click those links

It's easy, effortless, and I can sure use the money: If you appreciate our message, all you need do is show us you care by a simple click.

I do, in general, advocate clicking banner ads you find even remotely interesting -- everyone should click at least one GoogleAd or other banner every online day -- your thoughtfulness in responding to these ads helps hone and guide web advertisers into acceptable best practices, and each click helps preserve the free access to information; because it's easier to ignore, web advertising is less intrusive than television, and because you register your attention by voting with each click, you can personally influence their strategies.

But in this particular case, we want to send the opposite message, flipped in verso as a retribution. Because the sole intent of the ads is malicious and petty-minded, I think we should click on through on all these vicious Microsoft ads -- Microsoft is paying websites a premium price per click: You and I can ensure that they do.

You don't have to read the droll and drivel of it; in Mozilla you can send it to an unseen side tab (and their lame excuse at a rebuttal is pretty funny, if you have the stomach for it), but you have the power here to make a significant difference: every click will be forcing Microsoft to fund free software!

And don't stop here -- let's turn this into an anti-Boycott. Let's make it a personal policy to click through on every malicious Microsoft banner we see cluttering free software sites ...

Support Free Software:
Click On Microsoft
did you click your banner-ad today?