As you may know, Microsoft recently resurrected its “Scroogled” campaign against Google, attacking Gmail in the latest round. More on the campaign here, but the premise is basically that Microsoft wants Gmail users to be aware that Google serves them ads based on the content of their messages. They’re framing it as a privacy issue, though Google doesn’t actually have humans going through your email. It’s all algorithmic.
We talked about the whole thing with Microsoft’s Stefan Weitz more in depth here.
Anyhow today is Valentine’s Day, and Microsoft has put out a new Scroogled video for the occasion. The video shows a mail man (or a “Gmail” man) opening letters and reading them (again, Google has no humans reading your messages). It also shows an Outlook.com mail man delivering the mail without opening letters and reading them.
Update: As Weitz points out in the comments, the Gmail ‘Man’ is supposed to be a cyborg. According to Wikipedia, a cyborg would be a being with both organic and cybernetic parts.
It’s unclear how many non-keyword based ads the Outlook.com guy delivers.
