

Microsoft's Scroogled campaign  (Source: CNN)










You can check out Scroogled here.

Source: Microsoft

Comments     Threshold


"FREE" doesn't mean free
By bebimbap on 2/7/2013 1:31:53 PM , Rating: 2
Almost nothing today is free, even the "clean" air you breathe is paid for to be clean. The "free" radio you get is paid for by the ads you have to listen. I received a coupon for a free burger at wendy's IF i buy a drink and fries which is slightly cheaper than buying the #1 combo. So "free" but not free is old news.

If someone is offering you a "free" service it almost always has strings attached. In this case yes, they scan your email for your purchasing habits or sell that info to someone else to pay for your "free" service. But google has been doing this for YEARS, and is practically common practice as Amazon also does this with their Kindle line, so again old news.

And more to the point, I believe most Americans prefer being told what to like, for instance when it comes to cell phones the average American will walk into the store not knowing what they want and come out with an iPhone because the sales rep said it's the best device for their needs, but independent of what they really will use it for because the sales rep makes the biggest commissions on the iPhone. So an email service that "filters" content and tells people that they would more than likely prefer certain products or services such as the divorce lawyer example, would be welcomed by most. It is also ironic that Microsoft would comment on this as the "bing" search engine also attempted at doing this. In the end Google is giving most people the service they prefer, so again old news.

To recap, people like "free" as long as they don't have to pay real $$$ out of their pocket, they like being told what to do and what to like. Most people don't care how much of their private life that becomes public, evidenced by certain types of posts on facebook, twitter, youtube, etc.
So Microsoft really has no justifiable reason to "Scroogle" google. Other than being a troll.

