For the last couple of days we’ve been running a series of Microsoft advertisements in some major newspapers, focused on some key differences between some Google products and practices and some Microsoft products and services. This conversation was really spurred by some pretty unpopular changes Google has made, all designed to make you more valuable to them. We have a different view.
So to wrap up the week, we’re highlighting Internet Explorer and Bing. Great products on their own, each clearly different than what Google offers, each designed with people first.
Download Internet Explorer 9, and install an appropriate Tracking Protection List from the Internet Explorer Gallery. You can also find Tracking Protection Lists created by well-known privacy experts at http://privacyonline.org.uk/about.html. That way, you can browse the Web without simultaneously being “browsed” by others. It’s unique to IE9 in that, regardless of the privacy policy of the site you happen to be visiting, Tracking Protection helps ensure your information stays with you…not with the third parties whose content is on the websites you visit. In fact, the privacy protections in IE9 are so extensive that two of the world’s leading privacy researchers, Simon Davies and Alexander Hanff of Privacy International, said:
“IE9 Tracking Protection has huge potential and is a powerful tool for providing verifiable privacy protections for consumers. Alex and I were delighted when Microsoft decided to heavily support this area, since it has empowered independent parties like us to author rich Tracking Protection Lists—available free to consumers—that span Child Protection, Analytics and general Behavioral Profiling.”
And for a great search experience, all you have to do is click on Bing.com. Over the past two-plus years, it’s really matured into a great search engine – relevant results, experiences designed to help you do more, as opposed to searching more, and we think it’s every bit as good as any search product out there. I’d encourage you to try it for a day or a week or a month, really get to know it, and see what you think.
The overall theme we hit in our ads and here on this blog has been that while Google has one customer – its advertisers – we have many customers. Of course we have advertising customers, and we love them and are working to make sure we improve the advertising experience for you, and for them. But we think of YOU as our customer as well, customers for Office and Windows and Windows Azure and Bing and Internet Explorer and Hotmail and so on – and because we have a big view of who our customers are, we naturally make some different choices than Google does.
We think you care about this difference. And of course, all of Microsoft’s products and services, like Internet Explorer or Bing or Hotmail, are designed to put you first. And that’s a great experience, one you don’t have to “share” with Google.
We had some fun this week. But the choices you make really do impact how your personal information is treated. So, thanks for thinking it over, and I want you to know that Microsoft remains committed, as always, to designing products for you, our customers.
Posted by Frank X. Shaw
Corporate Vice President, Corporate Communications, Microsoft