Microsoft-Biased Consumerism

A friend of mine, Francesco Sanfilippo, just launched a new site, URL123.com, and he built it with ASP.NET. In the past, I used sites like tinyurl.com. Now that I have a Microsoft technology-based alternative, I'll use his site.

I like the idea of turning something like this:

[UPDATE] - I had to edit this post to wrap this URL because it was interfering with my right margin content.

https://support.microsoft.com/search/default.aspx?InCC_hdn=false&
Catalog=LCID%3D1033%26CDID%3DEN-US-KB%26PRODLISTSRC%3DON&withinResults=&QuerySource=gASr_Query&Product=msall&
Queryc=kbNetFrame110sp1fix+&Query=kbNetFrame110sp1fix+&
KeywordType=ALL&maxResults=150&Titles=false

Into this:

https://ms.url123.com/DotNet11SP1Fixes

As a consumer, I prefer to give my business to the businesses that give me theirs (or specifically, to Microsoft). That is, when given a choice between purchasing an item from Company A or from Company B, I'll choose the company that uses Microsoft software and technologies (especially online). I won't claim that I'm religious about it. I have to admit that here are times when I forget.

Back when I was looking for a site that could produce custom t-shirts I found CafePress.com, which was running on ASP at the time. I don't recall the name of the other company I considered, but I gave my business to CafePress because they were using ASP. A year or so later, they switched to JSP. The site went downhill and became unreliable. Before I could find an alternative, CafePress then switched to ASP.NET. During Beta. The site got better and they retained me as a customer.

Here are some other examples:

  • When I want to buy a book, I prefer to shop at Barnes & Noble. They run ASP on their site. I even give preference to their brick & mortar store over their competitors.
  • When I want to buy electronics, I usually go to Buy.com. They run on ASP, too.
  • When I want to buy office supplies, I prefer to shop at Staples, which runs their site on ASP.
  • When I get to take my European dream vacation, I'll use RentVillas.com to book my accommodations (ASP.NET site). I wish JetBlue (ASP) or Alaska Airlines (ASP) flew to Europe, but there's always Continental (ASP) or SAS (ASP).
  • For insurance, I use Allstate, yet another ASP site.