Scroogled! Microsoft’s latest attack on Google

I was going through my chores today, when suddenly i got pinged by a friend of mine who told me to visit a website called scroogled.com – I replied to him “scroogled?!” It looked to rhyme with Google or Googled. He simply replied with the evil emoji on IM.

The Who -

This guy had previously told me about Microsoft’s full-page ad in various US newspapers and dailies last year – which said that Google was making some unpopular changes to its products cloaked in language like ‘simplicity’, ‘transparency’ and ‘consistency’ and making it easier for Google to collect everything we search, send, say or stream using ONE of their services. Although, at the time, it did not say which service particularly and Microsoft was criticized by many for just pulling out empty charges against Google since it looked like an unpopular way of advertising in itself! SO i tried to figure this one out – turns out Scroogled! is the latest attack by Microsoft on Google’s Gmail. We know for one Bing is Google’s major competitor in terms of search and Outlook competing with Gmail which shares great popularity amongst users.

The What -

This time around though, Microsoft has tried to pump it up with a devoted website and examples on how Gmail users are getting scroogled! (i know the term makes an effort to sound controversial, but bear with me) Look for yourself in the screenshot of the site below –

The How -

The site also has two videos, which we have included below.  ”Think Google respects your privacy? Think again,” the ad says. Also the “Get The Facts” section of this websi te tells you how Gmail uses words from your sent and received email messages to display targeted ads.  If you’re a Gmail user, Google scans all o received messages, extracts keywords that they think are relevant to you, and then uses that data to target you with ads, simple meaning that you can be assured that Outlook.com wont collect data form your mail content and send you ads about wedding outfits, especially if you are planning marriage or if a friend of yours is. Is this the first time a tech company is pulling out punches in marketing and ad materials? Certainly Not! And this strategy has become a tad too old now – Samsung’s ‘Genius’ Ad and Blackberry’s ‘Wake Up’ campaign being recent examples. Links to the two vids are given below. Judge Google yourself or just have a laugh, happy viewing -
Link 1 -

Link 2-