Scroogled

Scroogled was a campaign by American software company Microsoft, that criticized Google on a number of fronts. The campaign was created for Microsoft by Mark Penn and started in late November 2012. The campaign aimed to drive users away from Google's services by attacking Google services. It was part of an effort by Microsoft to make users switch to Microsoft's products and services such as Outlook.com and Bing. In 2014, the campaign was abandoned and the Scroogled site now redirects to the Why Microsoft site.

History

In late 2012, Microsoft launched the Scroogled campaign by attacking the Google Shopping service. Microsoft said that "Simply put, all of their shopping results are now paid ads". The campaign continued in February 2013 to attack Gmail for allegedly reading email to have more targeted ads and suggested that users switch to Outlook.com. Then, on April 2013, the Scroogled campaign went over the Google Play Store because Google was allegedly handing over personal information to app developers. After several months, Microsoft continued the campaign by starting to sell Scroogled hats, mugs, hoodies and T-shirts containing negative messages about Google. A few days later, a Microsoft spot, which featured Rick Harrison from Pawn Stars, attacked Google's Chromebook products by arguing that without "Windows or Office" it is not a real laptop and for this reason would be rejected for trade by pawnshops. It tried to steer users away from Chromebooks and toward buying Windows-based laptops instead, arguing that Windows Laptops could be traded for cash while Chromebooks would be rejected .

External links

• Official website