This isn't very new though, I still remember how Windows 98 was pushing you to use features that only work when you're connected to the internet (e.g. a weather

This isn't very new though, I still remember how Windows 98 was pushing you to use features that only work when you're connected to the internet (e.g. a weather widget on your live desktop). I expect that if they had less competition, and weren't hit with the antitrust case, they would have tried to monetize features a lot earlier.