Bing, Microsoft Corp.'s search engine, today is launching a national campaign to highlight Bing's commitment to honest search results and to help explain to consumers the risks of Google Shopping's newly announced "pay-to-rank" practice, in which the shopping search results customers see are not true search results such as they see elsewhere on Google; they are actually ads that are ranked, in part, by who pays the most.
Instead of showing you the most relevant shopping search results for the latest coffee maker you're looking to buy Mom, Google's new redesigned shopping vertical now decides what to show you — and how prominently to display what product offers they show — based partially on how much a merchant selling the product has paid Google, Microsoft says. Merchants can pay to improve their chances to display their product offers higher than others inside of Google's shopping "search," even if it's not necessarily better or cheaper.
About the Don't Get Scroogled Campaign
With the Don't Get Scroogled campaign, Bing is talking to holiday shoppers about the importance of getting unbiased, comprehensive search results when they shop online — and how changes at Google Shopping could leave them with fewer choices and higher prices this season.
Beginning today and continuing throughout the holiday shopping season, the Bing-sponsored Don't Get Scroogled activities will appear online and offline, demonstrating why consumers should be concerned and helping them take action. Microsoft is also calling on Google to stop this "pay-to-rank" system for their shopping results and give shoppers an honest search.
