Saw via OSNews a link to the Forbes story about Microsoft adding ads into the built in Bing Search in Windows 8.1.
I can only imagine that this is an experiment that won’t ever actually be integrated (at least anytime soon) into the actual OS. I really really hope this.
Aggregated search is one of the pillars of Windows 8.1 and isn’t a terrible idea. However searching for something on your computer and having to deal with ads for “Looking for chicken recipes, head over to Church’s Chicken at 10th and Main!” or ($DEITY forbid) click through a 10 second video to get to your content on your machine. Apple also was investigated this when they filed a couple of patents a few years ago, but it never went beyond that.
Scary stuff.