Microsoft Asks "Have You Been Scroogled?"
One of the popular sayings Google adopted early on was "Don't be evil." However, with a new initiative with Google Shopping, Microsoft feels the company is being less than honest. It's likely some consumers will agree.
Instead of displaying truly relevant search results when people search for a product using Google Shopping, the company is now displaying a list of targeted ads that are ranked by bid price (in other words, how much an advertiser will pay for the spot).
Microsoft has been quick to pick up on this practice and has created a site called Scroogled to spread the word about Google's practices and highlight how Microsoft's search engine, Bing, provides "honest" search results.
To be fair, Google does disclose the practice on its shopping site, but only if you click the "Why these products?" link. When you do, you'll see a message which states: "Products and offers that match your query. Google is compensated by these merchants. Payment is one of several factors used to rank these results."
