News - Microsoft’s Scroogleized version of the Google Chrome video ad

[HEXUS]

An interesting contrast; both videos are embedded for you to compare.

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[wasabi]

MS have a point, although there are alternatives like Chromium or Firefox which don't involve running back to IE. Personally I'll stick with Chrome plus Ghostery over IE's poor privacy extensions any day.

[Saracen]

While not exactly MS's #1 fan, and with a distinct overtone of "Mr Pot, meet Mr Kettle" to that, I have to say on this, I'm fully with MS. For Google to go on about doing no evil, while using legal but unethical tax avoidance measures, and at the same time, actively, deliberately and repeatedly ignoring the hell of people's privacy, strikes me as rank hypocrisy of the first order. If doing no evil was their original ethos, they sold out to the lure of the filthy lucre quite a while ago.

[SineWave]

Firefox ESR all the way. It gets updated with hot fixes, but you don't get a new version every month.

They can bitch at each other, but you can only feel completely safe and secure with the Open Source software, since everybody can take a look at the source code and see what's going on. That goes for operating systems, too.

[Saracen]

MS have a point, although there are alternatives like Chromium or Firefox which don't involve running back to IE. Personally I'll stick with Chrome plus Ghostery over IE's poor privacy extensions any day.

Agreed, except about Chrome. On that, personally, no way, no how. It could be the best browser in the history of browsers and I'm not willing to try it, now or ever, because I simply don't trust Google.

[crossy]

MS have a point, although there are alternatives like Chromium or Firefox which don't involve running back to IE. Personally I'll stick with Chrome plus Ghostery over IE's poor privacy extensions any day.

My view too - I need cross-platform support, so IE isn't really an option. And while I might consider moving to Windows Phone next year (assuming Microsoft haven't dropped it or forgotten about it by then) there's no way that I'm going to downgrade my main system from Linux to Windows 8 (even if they do push MUI into the background).

Quite like these (childish?) ads - especially that anti-Apple set that Samsung US did last year for the S3 and Note ("The Next Big Thing") that ended up with that "I believe in a thing called love" flash mob video.

We need more "childish" ad campaigns....

[mec1234]

And Microsoft is a non profit charity organization that just loves you and wants to buy the world a coke ?

Hypercritics all of them.

[Roobubba]

'off *of* you'?! Whoever wrote that needs a damned good seeing to.

I'm in no way defending Google here, but I'll be deliberately avoiding new Micro$oft products now as a result of this advert. Which is a shame, as I was thinking about winmo for my next phone. Not now.

Tell us what YOU can do, don't smear the competition. No excuses from this type of advertising. Not for politicians, sales/marketing, or anyone. It's just bad form.

[jnutt]

'off *of* you'?! Whoever wrote that needs a damned good seeing to.

I'm in no way defending Google here, but I'll be deliberately avoiding new Micro$oft products now as a result of this advert. Which is a shame, as I was thinking about winmo for my next phone. Not now.

Tell us what YOU can do, don't smear the competition. No excuses from this type of advertising. Not for politicians, sales/marketing, or anyone. It's just bad form.

Unfortunately it's not just a MS V Google thing it's an American thing. That's the way they advertise in a lot of cases. Mostly bash the other guy instead of look what we do. You only have to look at their political ads.

[watercooled]

Along the lines of what others have said, I think they make a few good points, but it's more than a little hypocritical and essentially boils down to a smear campaign - rather than attracting customers through successes, they're attempting to frighten customers away from a competitor.

On the flip side, if we see companies publicising negatives of other companies, maybe it will be an incentive to improve?

@Saracen: If you want to try Chrome without any Google 'services', you could try a modified version like SRWare Iron - being open source, they essentially just recompile it without the phone-home services.

[Chadders87]

Microsoft aren't the evil corporation they used to be. They produce fairly good products, allow software & hardware innovations and developments from 3rd parties, and only crush around 75% of their direct competitors now.

On the other hand, Google started life being the users best friend, spent years grooming us with freedom of the internet and such spiel, simply so they could handcuff us to the bed and sell us out to advertising predators all the while telling us this is what we wanted all along and telling us to say thankyou after every degrading session.

An MS operating system + firefox = safe bets, otherwise it's back to Linux.

[Wozza63]

just installed ghostery for chrome and put bing on my speed dial on chrome, and put google right in the corner, and I have a WP so will use bing there too

[Saracen]

....

@Saracen: If you want to try Chrome without any Google 'services', you could try a modified version like SRWare Iron - being open source, they essentially just recompile it without the phone-home services.

Thanks for that. I wasn't aware of that one.

But .... (you knew there'd be one, didn't you) .... there's two reasons why I won't try Chrome. One is Google, especially their overall data-vampire attitude and the rights grab they 'accidentally' (twice) embedded in Chrome's T&C's. If it were just that, I might try Iron.

But the second reason is that I already use Firefox, with which, by and large, I'm content, and Opera as an alternative. And as a fallback for the occasional instance I want to do something where MS effectively insist on IE, I have that, too. I just don't need a fourth.

But thanks for the info, anyway.

[crossy]

Friend of mine had a comedic view of this...

what do you expect, the damned Google logo give their game away. Just look at it:
1. The "G" of the logo looks like a hook ... because we offer you "free" stuff to entice you with, then reel you in.
2. The "oo" is a pair of eyes ... always watching you like Google Brother;
3. The "g" of the Google logo looks suspiciously like a pair of eye's peeking around a corner ... because Google watches you surreptitiously.
4. "l" of the logo ... periscope?
5. The "e" of the logo looks like a laughing face ... because there's nothing you can do about it - we've got your data and there's nothing you can do about it. mwah-ha-ha.

Maybe he need to apply for a job in Microsoft's PR department?

[harryj1995]

Jealousy

[keithwalton]

Attacking the competition still isn't cool, show us what you can do better ... then we might pay attention.

However, surely the chrome logo is trademarked ? and using it in such defamatory manner is just asking to be sued.