Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) has been sticking with its latest campaign to pit its services up against Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) in hopes of grabbing market share away from the tech rival. Initially, the campaign focused mainly on Google Search, where Mountain View has a stranglehold on the search marketplace. The purpose of the “Scroogled” campaign was to try to siphon off Google Search market share in favor of Microsoft’s Bing search engine, which had been upgraded and renovated in recent months.
The campaign has now added some dimensions and some depth, as Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) has advanced its campaign, moving past Search and taking it into a third different phase most recently, as a new video is out describing the latest issue with the Google Play store for Android smartphones, trying to promote the Windows Phone operating system and the Windows app store. In the new video, Microsoft takes issue with the very free sharing of personal information when a user downloads an app from Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG)’s Google Play store. The video does state that most app makers are trustworthy with the information they collect, but there are a few that may have not-so-pure motives.
As Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) makes the point that Google Inc(NASDAQ:GOOG) is advocating and supporting free sharing of personal information – like name, e-mail address and other key data – Microsoft makes the claim that its Windows Phone store does not share any of that distinguishing information with app developers.
To be clear, this is the third flank of this current “Scroogled” attack campaign. The Google vs. Bing search battle happened in a separate campagin last year, and it didn’t work out all that well in that Bing has not made any significant progress in the Google Search market stranglehold. But apparently Microsoft believes there are more openings in Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) modling that gives Microsoft opportunities.
If this is the third phase of the “Scroogled” campaign, what went on with the first two phases?
The new “Scroogled” campaign for Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) began with Redmond noting that Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) scans personal Gmail accounts and e-mails to get information for targeted advertising.This was to be contrasted with Microsoft’s Outlook e-mail service, which does nto scan e-mails for advertising and marketing information. The second phase of the campaign took shots at the Google Shopping feature. In it, Microsoft claimed that Google Shopping provides links that are targeted ads that are made to look like search results. Bing is being promoted as the alternative, which provides actual search results that are not “hidden” advertisements.
See an example video from late last year on the next page:
What are your thoughts about this campaign? Is this going to help Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) build market share, or might it backfire like its prior “Scroogled” campaign? Let us know yoru thoughts about whether Microsoft has better services compared to Google and your thoughts about this campaign in general. We appreciate your thoughts int he comments section below.
DISCLOSURE: I own no positions in any stock mentioned.