Microsoft Money

I am just taking a moment to mark the passing of Microsoft Money. It's not the first big name product that Microsoft has discontinued recently, but this was the product that, for me, really opened my eyes to the vicious and arrogant company that Microsoft had become.

I remember Microsoft working together with Intuit. I remember thinking that the embrace seemed rather too close for comfort, like those female spiders that eat their mates. I was not surprised then when Microsoft attempted to buy Intuit; after all, it was common practice at the time for Microsoft to work closely with a company for long enough to learn its business, learn its business model, and most importantly understand its software inside out. One always had the feeling that the relationship was not complete until Microsoft had a copy of the unfortunate "partner's" source code locked away in its vaults. Then Microsoft would either acquire the company — at a price of its own choosing — or it would bring out competitive software, usually much better integrated with Windows and often much better targetted at the mass market and much cheaper.

Such was to be the fate of Intuit. I can't remember now whether Intuit may have even agreed to be acquired, but at any rate the US Department of Justice stopped the acquisition in its tracks. Microsoft's anger was truly amazing to behold, and it brought out Microsoft Money suspiciously quickly, with the stated ambition of crushing Intuit completely and in double-quick time.

But left with no choice but to fight, the plucky little personal finance company did just that, improving its own product and bringing out new ones and always just staying that little bit ahead. And so, unlike countless other small firms who had partnered with the Redmond giant only to be betrayed, gutted and discarded, Intuit actually survived and prospered. And in this way Money was a kind of high water mark for Microsoft's ambitions.

And now it's gone, replaced by a link to one of Microsoft's many web sites: a faceless me-too in an ocean of competitive sites. The same thing has already happened to Encarts, Microsoft's encyclopedia me-too, but it's Money that really wakes me up to the slow strangulation of this corporate behemoth. I wonder how many more of its products will go the same way?