Microsoft is either taking the holiday marketing approach or the Twilight/Vampire trend approach with its latest commercial. The title is Bing: Vampire Decision Engine.
The company uploaded the new commercial to its (Google-owned) YouTube channel. Accompanying the video is a short description:
"When you're looking for a restaurant that is family friendly, romantic, or maybe something with an otherworldly atmosphere, use Bing's reviews to stop searching and start deciding."
Microsoft must be really into Halloween this year, as they've relesaed two "Halloween oriented" commercials for their latest search engine, Bing.
Symantec's MessageLabs released its Intelligence Report for the month of October, and it reveals the that the spammers behind the biggest botnets – Cutwail, Rustock and Donbot – are using the upcoming major holidays and world events as the themes for their the latest spam runs. This is not particularly surprising news, but it is news that people should be aware of nevertheless.
Online retailer FancyDress.com is hosting what it claims is "the world's first interactive Twitter Séance or "Twéance" on October 30th - the day before Halloween.
The Twéance allows participants to nominate the names of their favorite "departed stars" along with a question they would like them to be asked by "renowned psychic medium Jayne Wallace." Participants are asked to simply tweet this to @tweance.
For those of you sitting around this evening either avoiding trick-or-treaters, or just simply looking for some ghostly entertainment to celebrate All Hallow's Eve, Google has some special content set aside for you. Not only are they featuring some Halloween Books on the front page of Google Book Search:
In the Halloween spirit, Google has of course supplied us with a "doodle" for the day, but the interesting part of this to me as fan of horror films is that the doodle was designed by Wes Craven.
Expect to see a swarm of pirates plundering your yard this Halloween. Pirate costumes are again the most searched for ensembles, just like last year. Of course, it depends on the source. Yahoo says we're all going disco.
Advocates for Linux want Microsoft and their CEO, Steve Ballmer, to dispense with the threats and show which code in the Linux world infringes on Microsoft's property.
Google, Yahoo, AOL, and Ask have spiffed up their sites for All Hallow's Eve, but Microsoft is sadly lacking in the treat department. Microsoft handed out tricks instead, bestowing the horror of litigation on 55 alleged software counterfeiters around the globe.
Expect the ghoulish staples this year: streets filled with ghosts, mummies, vampires, and werewolves. This Halloween also promises more contemporary characters as well, as trick-or-treaters reveal with their search behavior.