Microsoft is portraying Google as a lousy holiday shopping guide in its latest attempt to divert more traffic to its Bing search engine.
The attack started yesterday with a marketing campaign focused on a recent change in the way Google operates the part of its search engine devoted to shopping results. The revisions require merchants to pay Google to have their products listed.
In ads, Microsoft contends the new approach betrays Google’s longstanding commitment to provide the most-trustworthy results on the Web, even if it means forgoing revenue. To punctuate its point, Microsoft is warning consumers they risk getting “scroogled” if they rely on Google’s shopping search.
Google’s search engine is dominant on the Internet, while Bing runs a distant second.