14 DAY TRIAL // The Redmond-based technology company Microsoft continues its public war with Google, although the search giant is yet to issue a statement defending its shopping practices.
Six days ago, Microsoft officially rolled out “Scroogled,” a brand new campaign supposed to show everyone that Google is actually serving users ads instead of shopping results.
Google, on the other hand, reacted in a pretty calm manner and praised its service, but without making any clear statements regarding Microsoft’s new campaign. And Microsoft is not at all satisfied with this attitude.
“How did Google respond? They distributed a statement praising their service. They highlighted how great products look on Google Shopping without really explaining how the products get there in the first place. They did not contradict or argue any of the facts and information we laid out. The silence is disappointing given how important this issue is to consumers and the online industry as a whole,” the Bing Team wrote in a blog post.
What’s more, Microsoft claims that Google “blurs the line between ranking and ads” and many users do not even know of Google’s “unfair” practices because the appearance of Google Shopping looks much like other Google search services.
So it’s no surprise that Microsoft encourages its users to switch to Bing, as its very own search engine would never adopt such a marketing strategy. At least that’s what the company claims.
“At Bing, we may be smaller, but we’re on a sure and steady path of growth. People chose Bing web search results over Google nearly 2 to 1 in blind comparison tests and we believe this recent change to Google Shopping is just one more reason for people to consider Bing,” the Bing Team added in the blog post titled “A commitment to trust and transparency in search.”
Google will most likely react with a public statement anytime soon, so we’ll keep you updated on this topic.