Finally, the stupid paperclip gets the boot. It's always been the very first
thing I do whenever I have to install a Msoft product, is to disable the
dopey paperclip. They have finally seen the light.
-LD
Tech Headlines
Wednesday April 11 02:00 PM EDT
Microsoft tool "Clippy" gets pink slip
By Erich Luening CNET News.com
Software giant Microsoft is laying off one of its most controversial
employees: Clippy.
The software help system, a long-despised feature of Microsoft's popular
Office suite of business software, is the star of a new Web marketing
campaign launched Wednesday. The campaign, and a companion Web site, trumpet
Microsoft's forthcoming Office XP software as so easy to use that Clippy is
out of a job.
The Web site, designed and hosted by Microsoft, serves as a mock layoff
notice and resume for Clippy. "I've taken over this space to share my
pathetic story and show off my skills as a Web designer. Not bad, huh? Know
anyone who's hiring? Office XP works so easily that it's made Office
Assistants like me useless. Obsolete. And, I'm told, hideously
unattractive," Microsoft has Clippy saying on the Web site.
The company is bringing Clippy to a light-hearted end. Microsoft is asking
customers to take part in an online poll so they can chime in on what
Clippy's next job should be.
The site is part of a $30 million marketing and advertising campaign
launched to promote Office XP, which Microsoft is expected to launch this
summer. For Microsoft, Office is an extremely important product: Its sales
make up more than one-third of the company's overall revenue.
Microsoft is hoping to appeal to customers with a less-obtrusive, easier to
use version of the suite. In Office XP, Microsoft plans to hide the Clippy
character tool from view and help people in a less obtrusive manner.
Office customers are wondering why the Redmond, Wash.-based company took so
long to give Clippy the boot.
"Not one person in my office, from the receptionist to the sales people to
the engineers to the CEO use the blasted paper clip. Not even my wife, who
is an elementary school teacher, uses it," wrote Ketan Deshpande, senior
software engineer at Manage.com, in an e-mail to News.com. "In less time
than it took MS to put this Web site together, they could have pulled the
dumb clip out of their software."
Other Office customers agreed and wondered if Clippy was related to another,
much-reviled Microsoft helper. "These guys seem to be a legacy from
Microsoft Bob. When they were introduced I thought Microsoft was trying to
save face from Bob's dismal acceptance by moving a key piece of technology
into the professional products," wrote Steve Mizera, a systems engineer in
Silverado, Calif.
"Every time I have to install or reinstall Office the first thing I do on
each application is turn off Clippy. I have tried several of the variations
of the "animated helper," but I have found them all too annoying to leave
on," Mizera wrote.
Lisa Gurry, a Microsoft Office product manager, said Clippy has lived a
useful life but is no longer needed. "We think Office has so many new
features for making it easier to use that Clippy is no longer useful. This
is definitely in response to user feedback. We asked ourselves what we could
do to help users find features," with the least amount of confusion.
Gurry said if people miss Clippy, they can turn him back on by clicking on
the "help" tag on the Office XP task bar.
Office XP not only plays a critical part in the company's product lineup
this year, but it is seen as a catalyst for Microsoft's .Net software plan.
However, the company will have a battle convincing many customers to
upgrade, analysts say. Many consumers and a growing number of business
customers don't see the need to upgrade to yet another version of Office,
since they use few of the productivity suite's existing features.
The Clippy Web campaign will continue until the Office XP product launch at
the end of May, Gurry said.
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