We’ve written a lot lately about Microsoft’s efforts to reinvent itself, first rebranding its Live search engine as the Bing, and then partnering with Yahoo! to make Bing the search engine on Yahoo!’s still-impressive empire of content and services. But if Microsoft is going to beat Google in Search 3.0 and master shifts in the driving paradigms of the Internet from search and browsers to ubiquitous integration of social networking and other paradigms as yet unforeseen, Microsoft will need more than just brilliant engineering: They’ll need clever marketing.
So it seems that the software titan is turning to user-generated advertising, such as this gem:
WARNING: Battlestar Galactica spoiler: Google may well be in danger of losing its monopoly on cool to Microsoft if Bingcan get at least four of the Final Five Cylons to volunteer as back-up singers in a promo video contest.
Google clearly considers Microsoft a threat, having recently launched an ad campaign of its own for its Apps services, which compete directly with Microsoft Office.
Berin Szoka / Berin is the founder of TechFreedom. Previously, he was a Senior Fellow at The Progress & Freedom Foundation and Director of PFF's Center for Internet Freedom. He covers Internet and media policy issues including privacy, advertising, neutrality, cybersecurity, free speech, child safety, and various other efforts to regulate the Net.
Berin was elected in 2010 to the Steering Committee of the DC Bar Association's Computer & Telecommunications Law Section. Before joining PFF, he practiced communications, Internet and satellite law as an Associate in the Communications Practice Group at Latham & Watkins LLP. Previously, he practiced at Lawler Metzger, a boutique telecommunications law firm in Washington and clerked for the late Hon. H. Dale Cook, Senior U.S. District Judge for the Northern District of Oklahoma.
A recognized expert on the legal and regulatory issues associated with space commercialization, Berin is a member of the FAA's Commercial Space Transportation Advisory Committee (COMSTAC). He is a Director, and former Chairman, of the Space Frontier Foundation, a citizens' advocacy group founded in 1988 and dedicated to opening the space frontier by enabling "NewSpace."
He received his Bachelor's degree in economics from Duke University and his J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law, where he served as Submissions Editor of the Virginia Journal of Law & Technology.
Berin, please tell me that you are being sarcastic when you say “this gem.” If you are, I have some respect for you. If you're not, I feel sorry for you that you this warmed over piece of astroturfing contains any shred of quality.
Google may have something to worry about, but before they have to worry about Microsoft, they have to worry about 50,000,000 other eventualities, such as the much more likely scenario of General Motors reinventing itself as an internet company built around a new search engine called the Edsel II….
EF, I'm really hurt that you actually had to ask that! After all this time…
OF COURSE I was kidding! Hence, my snide comment about the backup singers.
But. I do have to admit, the jingle is annoyingly catchy.
http://enigmafoundry.wordpress.com eee_eff
Berin:
I had to ask because you guys do tend to support MS, and I've been getting spam saying something like “have you tried this new search engine…” with links to the bing site…
These are the same guys that thought up the name zune….
http://enigmafoundry.wordpress.com eee_eff
Berin, please tell me that you are being sarcastic when you say “this gem.” If you are, I have some respect for you. If you're not, I feel sorry for you that you this warmed over piece of astroturfing contains any shred of quality.
Google may have something to worry about, but before they have to worry about Microsoft, they have to worry about 50,000,000 other eventualities, such as the much more likely scenario of General Motors reinventing itself as an internet company built around a new search engine called the Edsel II….
EF, I'm really hurt that you actually had to ask that! After all this time…
OF COURSE I was kidding! Hence, my snide comment about the backup singers.
But. I do have to admit, the jingle is annoyingly catchy.
http://enigmafoundry.wordpress.com eee_eff
Berin:
I had to ask because you guys do tend to support MS, and I've been getting spam saying something like “have you tried this new search engine…” with links to the bing site…
These are the same guys that thought up the name zune….
http://enigmafoundry.wordpress.com eee_eff
Berin, please tell me that you are being sarcastic when you say “this gem.” If you are, I have some respect for you. If you're not, I feel sorry for you that you this warmed over piece of astroturfing contains any shred of quality.
Google may have something to worry about, but before they have to worry about Microsoft, they have to worry about 50,000,000 other eventualities, such as the much more likely scenario of General Motors reinventing itself as an internet company built around a new search engine called the Edsel II….
EF, I'm really hurt that you actually had to ask that! After all this time…
OF COURSE I was kidding! Hence, my snide comment about the backup singers.
But. I do have to admit, the jingle is annoyingly catchy.
http://enigmafoundry.wordpress.com eee_eff
Berin:
I had to ask because you guys do tend to support MS, and I've been getting spam saying something like “have you tried this new search engine…” with links to the bing site…
These are the same guys that thought up the name zune….
The Technology Liberation Front is the tech policy blog dedicated to keeping politicians' hands off the 'net and everything else related to technology. Learn more about TLF →
The Technology Liberation Front is the tech policy blog dedicated to keeping politicians' hands off the 'net and everything else related to technology.