Clippy, the paperclip Office Assistant who was introduced in Office 97 and turned off by default in Office XP (but still there, and surprisingly easy to enable by mistake) is finally dead, dead, dead:
I gotta say that in my years (many) of covering the technology beat, one of the oddest moments of all was when I attended the Microsoft reviewers' workshop for Office 97 at which Clippy and the other Office Assistants were unveiled. The Microsoft execs seemed proud of the the idea of a talking paperclip providing online help and explained that their research showed that even advanced users loved it.
At the time, I thought they were either joking or losing their grip on reality; I didn't realize, though, that Clippy would compete with Microsoft Bob for the honor of being Microsoft's most famously dumb "innovation."
Between Clippy's passing and Windows Vista's elimination of the Windows search doggie, 2007 promises to be a year in which Microsoft treats its customers a little less like backwards five-year-olds. Now if it'd just ditch that patronizing "Your potential. Our passion." slogan, which makes me want to go out and buy someone else's software every time I hear it...
Clippy is annoying. As is the search doggie and Microsoft's slogan. You make very good points.