WASHINGTON, D.C. Feb. 12 (DPI) – Microsoft last week unveiled the second stage of its “Scroogled” ad campaign, which seeks to discredit Google’s email service.
But online feedback suggested few Gmail users will be changing their platform anytime soon, in effect saying: “Who Cares if Google Monitors My Emails for Ad Purposes?”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63u-RG-31B0
The ads were developed by one-time Democratic pollster Mark Penn, now working for Microsoft. The ads, by many estimates, come across as naive — more and more users of the internet have concluded there is no such thing as digital privacy.
Moreover, users well understand that Google’s automatic keyword-matching system is the price they pay for reliable mail service – that’s free.
The campaign is intended to suggest that Bing, Microsoft’s search engine, doesn’t engage in Big Brother surveillance of users, at least compared with Google’s online services.
More than a few readers and pundits said Microsoft’s own mail system does precisely what it accuses Google of doing. On Search Engine Land, blogger Danny Sullivan wrote: “Great campaign, if it were true. It’s not. Bing itself does the same things it accuses Google of.”
Comments on the Youtube link suggest the ad is not only ineffective, it makes Microsoft look silly.
Among the comments: “Wow. That was just sad.” “Desperation, thy name is Microsoft.”
One reply to a stray poster complaining about Google invading user privacy: “Bro, you signed up for it. You knowingly accepted its TOS (terms of service). I know nobody reads that, but you do understand it was not something that happened overnight. If MS developed this kind of technology, they would use it. It’s what makes billions and it’s what keeps these services free. I like this quote: “If you’re not paying for it, then you’re the product”. Let’s face it, privacy is dead.”
Another: “The REAL definition of ‘Scroogled’: when MS screws itself trying to smear Google and gets called on it by everybody on Facebook”
Google still holds about a 75% share of the search market, and remains the leader among free email platforms.