Scroogled not over says Microsoft

On Monday, we passed along a statement from Microsoft saying that the Scroogled campaign had come to an end. Microsoft had coined the name, a combination of the name "Scrooge" and "Google," and used the term to define those situations when Google is not offering shopping search users an unbiased search result. Instead, the search results are actually ads that Google is paid for, and no notification of this practice is listed.

Despite the aforementioned statement from Microsoft, it turns out that the company has decided not to pull the plug on the Scroogled campaign after all. In a follow-up statement on Monday, Microsoft said, "Scroogled will go on as long as Google keeps Scroogling people." Just last month, Microsoft expanded the definition of Scroogled to include the invasion of privacy that occurs when Google goes through your email word by word to sell related ads. In other words, your private written emails are dissected word for word with Google's computers matching up ads with certain words and phrases. Your email could be about private financial matters, or about health issues. It doesn't matter. Google sells ads based on your private correspondence.

Microsoft's video shows a real-life example about an email relating to a cat that had to be put to sleep due to old age. Google used the words in the email to determine it was about a pet and pushed out an ad for free pet-health exams that was attached to the correspondence. Now that Microsoft has decided not to put an end to this campaign, we can expect them to expand the definition of Scroogled some more.


source: MicrosoftNews via WMPoweruser