Over the past few months, Microsoft (MSFT) has launched a number of anti-Google (GOOG) advertising campaigns to help move users away from Google’s services. The Redmond, Washington-based company’s latest campaign, called “Scroogled,” targets Google’s “unfair pay-to-rank shopping practices.” Microsoft notes that merchants must pay Google to be included in its Shopping service and is asking users to try Bing instead, which it claims will not “switch to a pay-to-rank” method of listing products.
“In their under-the-radar announcement, Google admits they’ve now built ‘a purely commercial model’ that delivers listings ranked by ‘bid price.’ Google Shopping is nothing more than a list of targeted ads that unsuspecting customers assume are search results. They call these ‘Product Listing Ads’ a ‘truly great search,’ ” Microsoft said. “We say that when you limit choices and rank them by payment, consumers get Scroogled. For an honest search result, try Bing.”
Despite the software giant’s efforts, Google is still king of search. The Mountain View-based company controls nearly 70% of the search industry in the U.S., compared to Bing’s 16% share.
Microsoft’s Scroogled commercial follows below.
