Let me start off by saying I don't use Microsoft's Live.com for searches. That's in no way a slam at Live.com. I just don't use it. Which means I don't visit the site. Which means I had no idea that Live.com on Thursday night was featuring a picture of a snow leopard -- until a colleague told me about it.
Snow Leopard, you may recall, is the code-name for Mac OS X 10.6, which is due out by mid-year from Microsoft rival Apple Inc. Could the snow leopard pic be a dig at Apple, my colleague mused. Maybe a hack?
My first thought was that this was simply Live.com's way of keeping the search page fresh, sort of like Google does by changing up the "GOOGLE" letters on its search page. New day, new picture.
That didn't stop a few tech writers from quickly weighing in on the matter, mostly to dismiss the Live.com-Apple connection. And it didn't stop a fair number of Tweets from popping up on the subject. I'm not sure why. Maybe it's the dearth of Apple related news. Or maybe it's because debating the merits of a snow leopard picture on Live.com is better than glomming onto the latest news about the economy.
Then it dawned on me when I went to check Live.com this morning (and found a picture of Earth from space). It's not about tweaking Apple over Snow Leopard. It's not a hack by a mad genius Mac fanboi. It's an intentional plot to get Mac users to visit Live.com! Yeah, yeah, that's the ticket!
Hey, it worked. And I bet there are a lot more Apple fans checking Live.com now, this very minute, to see what Apple-related picture is there, searching for a deeper meaning to whatever's displayed. When you figure it out, let me know.