People love free stuff - that’s why I joined MSN

This article has made its rounds today - and it reflects much of the excitement internally around MSN and Windows Live.

FORTUNE: Microsoft’s new brain - May 1, 2006

Ozzie remembers “vigorous disagreement” over business models based on advertising revenue, vs. those based on transaction fees or traditional licensing.

“It’s clear that in the consumer realm, online advertising is this new economic engine,” says Ozzie. “It’s not as obvious how that engine is applied in the enterprise market.”

But the companywide excitement about the potential of online advertising is palpable.

Let’s face it, everyone loves free stuff. Heck, there’s even a certain segment of people who love rebates.

But how do you get free stuff? When others pay?

And why would someone else pay for you to get free stuff? Because they get value out of it.

That’s one of the reasons why I decided to join the Toolbar team. It’s free! People don’t have to pirate it to use the work that I’m proud of.

Of course there are other reasons too (like being the gateway between the web world and the Win32 world), but free is always good.