As we start the run up to the holiday season both Google and Yahoo are promoting IE7 for all you Microsoft types. (good luck by the way – I’ll stick with Flock on my Mac – ahem.)
Earlier in the day, there was a royal spat about the Google ‘version’ of its IE7 ad and Yahoo!’s. Their almost identical. Turns out Google ripped off Yahoo! As happens these days, Yahoo!’s Jeremy Zawodny got on his digital hind legs and duly flayed Google. Ouch! Such is competitive life among lower order primates marketers in that swamp we call Silicon Valley.
There is another take on this. As Rex Dixon asserts:
Imitation is the biggest compliment to the original work. It shows that Google thought, why try to create something better when this works? It also shows that when you are just bowing down to the king, why not pay the tax and just be done with it?
Then I saw the hastily cobbled together ‘new’ Google ad for IE7. Truly awe inspiring (not). This plumbed the depths of mediocrity:
What does “optimized for Google” mean?
• Google homepage you can personalize
• Google Toolbar
• Google as your search engine
Whatever happened to ‘user customized?’ Which is worse, an apps that gives you choice, or one that doesn’t give you choice from the get go?
Yahoo’s! ad is more informative and gives you a personalised Yahoo Finance page. It carries more or less the same blurbs – IE7 is ‘optimized’ for Yahoo! too. For me, Yahoo! has always been better than Google prsenting market info stuff (for those who advise clients on such matters.)
