Choose Bing and Microsoft will donate $3 to charity

[DukeEsquire]

Seems like they are using charities to buy their way to the top.

I wish Microsoft would use me to buy their way to the top.

I'll take $3 for every person that switches to Bing...

[George P Global Moderator]

I think the difference is that this isn't just donating to a charity, it's donating to disaster relief because hundreds of thousands of people just died and millions are suffering after a major tragedy. In that situation a company should just donate and not use it as an excuse to promote its products.

In that case Google is doing the exact same thing with it's People finder service yet gets zero flak. The double standard set on MS has gotten old, if you're going to critisize Bing for trying to use it's brand via twitter to get people to donate then you should also slam Google for doing the same.

Do you really think that companies who just donate supplies don't get anything out of it? You think people who get help from XX corp when they're down in the dumps don't remember that later and by extention form a connection to that company in the future? Everything is marketing, hell the damn governments that send aid are doing it as well. The US going in to "help" in tern makes the people like the US more, and by extention in the future US related things. I mean damn, does it even matter if in the end people ARE being helped somehow? ffs.

[ichi]

In that case Google is doing the exact same thing with it's People finder service yet gets zero flak.

Got any source for that? I'm not familiar with that people finder thing, I just googled it and couldn't find anything about donations depending on product usage or advertisement, only a form where you can donate your own money to the Red Cross :unsure:

[George P Global Moderator]

Got any source for that? I'm not familiar with that people finder thing, I just googled it and couldn't find anything about donations depending on product usage or advertisement, only a form where you can donate your own money to the Red Cross :unsure:

Did you read the rest of my post at all? The service is advertising Google, while the form and method is different the end resault is the same. You're taking advantage of a need people have to push your brand ahead. If you don't wanna see it or think of it as the same that's on you though. I don't much care for the method and if or not the companies get something out of it (because they are regardless), as long as people get help does it even matter?

[Flawed]

Why dont they just give the $3 to charity anyway instead of trying to guilt trip people into changing to a search service.

Bing[o]! lol. Merely a cynical marketing ploy to exploit caring people. Quite disgusting really, but not entirely surprising. This is Microsoft after all.

[Rigby]

Did you read the rest of my post at all? The service is advertising Google, while the form and method is different the end resault is the same. You're taking advantage of a need people have to push your brand ahead.

/facepalm

Hear that whoosh? That was the point going over your head. This isn't about advertising, it's about promising a big donation to disaster relief but then withholding it and saying you will only donate when people use your product. Google isn't doing that.

[ichi]

Did you read the rest of my post at all? The service is advertising Google, while the form and method is different the end resault is the same. You're taking advantage of a need people have to push your brand ahead. If you don't wanna see it or think of it as the same that's on you though. I don't much care for the method and if or not the companies get something out of it (because they are regardless), as long as people get help does it even matter?

Yes, I read your post and I don't see how it has anything to do with advertisement through guilt trip.

Of course you get brand recognition if you publish a free service that turns out to be useful (assuming people finder is, idk), but looking at the people finder project site you can see it's an open service. You can plug into it from your own site or any app using the API to query the registries and feed your own DB, so it doesn't even boost Google ads and it doesn't even necessarily imply a direct association with the Google brand.

Point is yes, you'll always get something out of everything, but there are lots of ways to go about it and some of them are lame.

Now if Google required that in order to use people find you had to install the google toolbar, install chrome or set google as your default search provider, then you might be onto something.

[amon91]

They're definitely trying to kill two birds with one stone. They're a business anyway, not a charity. They may want to help, but the bottom line for them is how many people are using their product.

[George P Global Moderator]

/facepalm

Hear that whoosh? That was the point going over your head. This isn't about advertising, it's about promising a big donation to disaster relief but then withholding it and saying you will only donate when people use your product. Google isn't doing that.

I'm well aware of the point but you want to limit it to one thing while I'm talking about a it in a more general sense. Donations are just another form of Aid, it could be money, supplies or services, it doesn't matter at all. They're both advertising their brands, if you want to take sides and say what Google is doing isn't bad because they're not talking about money then fine, so it's a lesser evil, boo hoo. The Google brand is still getting publicity and so on.

Yes, I read your post and I don't see how it has anything to do with advertisement through guilt trip.

Of course you get brand recognition if you publish a free service that turns out to be useful (assuming people finder is, idk), but looking at the people finder project site you can see it's an open service. You can plug into it from your own site or any app using the API to query the registries and feed your own DB, so it doesn't even boost Google ads and it doesn't even necessarily imply a direct association with the Google brand.

Point is yes, you'll always get something out of everything, but there are lots of ways to go about it and some of them are lame.

Now if Google required that in order to use people find you had to install the google toolbar, install chrome or set google as your default search provider, then you might be onto something.

It might not boost google as directly as what MS did with it's twitter post but the connection is there to some extent. In the end if we're talking about the quake how is the retweet to donate idea bad exactly? How is that different form running a TV donation drive which actually does it's own form of advertising as well?

[Hum]

Why is Microsoft so desperate to get you to use Bing ?

Somehow a Bing 'toolbar' got installed on my netbook -- had to uninstall that.

I always uncheck the toolbar options, when installing an app.

HELLO up there, Microsoft:

I am not going to use Bing, or buy the cheesy products it would try to push me to ! :ermm:

[ichi]

It might not boost google as directly as what MS did with it's twitter post but the connection is there to some extent. In the end if we're talking about the quake how is the retweet to donate idea bad exactly? How is that different form running a TV donation drive which actually does it's own form of advertising as well?

It's not a matter of being good, bad, equal or different: it was publicly perceived as a lame way to boost Bing's market share through guilt trip taking advantage of a natural disaster, it backfired and MS had to apologize.

If only because of that, it was a bad idea. Call it a bad PR move or whatever.

If you want to donate, then do it straight away. If you want to promote your product or your brand, then offer something that's actually useful for the matter at hand (or that at least tries).

That or do something stupid like a call for retweeting a link to Bing and then get called out for the obvious marketing gimmick. Your choice.

[Growled Member]

That is a nice gesture and all but I'd rather donate myself.