My last post gave some people the impression that I am against all business models that hinge on giving away products and services for free. I am not. I am just against irrational free. To be clear, I do believe there are lots of services where free makes sense, like Facebook. The problem is that there is not enough “attention” to make most advertising-based businesses successful. And the quest for gold has turned everything into a “media” business.

People have suggested, for example, that Microsoft Works should be made free and turned into an advertising based platform. Now, maybe that’s smart for Microsoft (MSFT); they are probably generating very little money from Works. But let’s be clear. Works is not a good advertising property. The amount of attention Microsoft would be able to siphon towards advertising is essentially nil: Ads are generally invisible when used…