On February 13th Microsoft's MSN created a new marketing campaign for their MSN Internet access. It's called the MSN Project. It's a series of commercials following the lives of four strangers who have to live together similar to MTV’s "The Real World."

These strangers are: Georgia, a young woman from Wyoming; Mike, unemployed and from New York; Jackson, a retired business man from Georgia; and Karen, a recruiter who loves cats. Unlike with the "Real World," there are bigger age gaps between the roommates and there are only four of them instead of about seven as on MTV. And here's the big twist, when these people moved in to their new home, it was completely empty except for a computer that was hooked up to the web using MSN Internet access. They have to buy everything they need including paper towels to food to their beds using only the web.

You can follow their progress and see what everyone is buying online, see what they are up to and post messages to them at communities.msn.com/MSNProject. But don’t go there if you're looking to get gossip on if Georgia and Mike are hooking up or if there has been any tension among the roommates. You probably won’t find any of that because these people really aren't living together. Yeah, that's right this is all made up and these people are all actors. It's a mockumentary, designed to look like a documentary but it's all made up.

So why would MSN make these commercials to make us think that there are people living on just the internet alone? Probably because you really can and they just wanted a way to let you know that the future is here. You really can buy anything your heart desires online. I've seen groceries, furniture, appliences, books, clothes, jewelry, stocks and even pizza delivery online. If you can buy it it's online. It's easy to do, you don't have to leave home and everything gets delivered right to your door step. MSN is just trying to wake us up and get us to realize what is possible using only the internet and of course they want us to use MSN when we do it. Truth is you don't need MSN, any web server will do.

I personaly have only bought a few items online and I'm happy with what I bought and the service I was given, but I still like to be able to try clothes on before I buy them, make the salesman work for his commission and actually get to interact a little with a product before I purchase it. Then maybe I'll surf the web a little to see if I can get it cheaper online and maybe I'll buy it off the internet, but I usually go ahead and buy it at the store.