So while we take a break from all the Apple versus Samsung lawsuits, why don’t we shift our attention over to the brewing Microsoft versus Google battle. This time, we have Microsoft on the offensive with their current “Scroogled” ad campaign — which also cost them  a seven figure amount. The gist of the campaign? Google’s Gmail reads all of your email’s contents and doesn’t respect your privacy. Outlook, doesn’t. Here’s one of the ads:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=iI1ominSL_c

According to Microsoft, while 88 percent of people disapprove of the practice of email providers “reading” through their emails contents to sell ads, 70 percent of users don’t know that email providers do it. Interestingly, The Wall Street Journal points out that Microsoft’s Outlook service tailors its ads based on the subject lines of your emails. When asked for comment by The Verge on the other hand, Microsoft denied this and said that it does not scan subject lines of emails to target ads. A number of users in multiple outlets also point out that Microsoft does in a way scan the contents of your emails, otherwise they wouldn’t be able to do things like auto-sort newsletters and even something as simple as a spam filter. So while they say might not do it for targeted ads, they are still technically reading your emails in some form.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=63u-RG-31B0

Microsoft paid a lot of money for this ad campaign. Was this a waste of time and money? Or do you agree with them? Comment and let us know!

[via WSJ, The Verge]