Microsoft Ad Wars Turn to Google

I think they are just being too conservative. They really need to spend at least twice that amount of money, or more.

You mean like they did on the Seinfeld ads? Yeah, that was money well spent...

Seriously, though, Microsoft has a great track record of success in marketing itself. The article says:

Quoting:advertising doesn't drive market share. Quality and market perception does

Quality? Really? You mean OS/2 really did capture the market in the mid '90s. Linux and the BSDs, the quality OSes, are battling it out for the desktop? I mean, like, if quality is so important nobody would choose a bug-ridden, insecure, bloated Windows, would they?

Good marketing trumps quality every time.

Like I said, when people don't know how to choose on merits, they choose on drivel.

The name Google has become a verb. It's awfully hard to compete with that.

How do you manipulate photos? You photoshop it. How do you find stuff on the web? You google it.

Likewise, to the uninformed, Internet Explorer is synonymous with "browser". In fact, they often don't even realise that it's but one application out of many that can accomplish the same task, often better.

It urks me when this trademark to verb/noun thing happens... but it happens. Sometimes it cements the brand as the only choice, other times it diminishes or kills the brand... like Kleenex / Xerox.