Tracking Internet Use Remains Difficult
,----[ Quote ]
| For example, this month Nielsen said search-engine queries for No. 3-ranked
| Microsoft Corp. jumped about 80 percent in June, a curious development for a
| search engine that had been continuously losing market share.
|
| Microsoft said the gains were the result of a word game promotion, in which
| players had to form words out of a jumble of letters. As part of the game,
| Microsoft's search engine automatically hunted for Web pages that contained
| the word being guessed at.
|
| The promotion raises the question of whether these clicks were the result of
| using automated means, and therefore shouldn't be counted.
|
| Nielsen product manager Scott Ross said the company sees no need to change
| the June search-engine rankings. Yet, he conceded that critics -- including
| Yahoo, operator of the world's second most popular search engine -- may also
| have a point about Microsoft using questionable means to spark the surge in
| popularity.
`----
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070725/tracking_internet_usage.html?.v=1
The headline looks interestingly similar to one from an article that I
published earlier this month.
Related:
Microsoft’s Club Live fiasco
,----[ Quote ]
| People were using the macro on more than 3 games at a time, on more than 2
| accounts at a time, why Microsoft didn’t pick up on the fact that in the
| first few days some people had accumulated enough for 3 Zunes each is beyond
| us. Some were lucky, others, not so much.
|
| [...]
|
| So far no one has been banned from using their accounts, which they needed to
| sign up, probably because they did not break any laws, or probably because
| Microsoft didn’t want that hassle and liked their new found traffic.
`----
http://www.blogthe.net/2007/07/16/microsofts-club-live-fiasco/
Bots Helped To Boost Microsoft Live Search Gains
,----[ Quote ]
| In a blog post, Compete analyst Steve Willis attributed Microsoft's
| search gains to prizes awarded to users participating in Live Search
| Club, which features games that post queries to Microsoft's search
| engine.
|
| [...]
|
| Microsoft is essentially being DDoSed by thousands of people hundreds
| of times per minute, but they are mistaking this rise in traffic for
| people actually using Live Search."
`----
http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=201001092
,----[ Quote ]
| In 2001, the Los Angeles Times accused Microsoft of astroturfing
| when hundreds of similar letters were sent to newspapers voicing
| disagreement with the United States Department of Justice and its
| antitrust suit against Microsoft. The letters, prepared by Americans
| for Technology Leadership, had in some cases been mailed from
| deceased citizens or nonexistent addresses.
`----
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astroturfing
|
|
