Microsoft has launched another would-be viral online campaign for Live Search that conceptually mimics the earlier Ms. Dewey campaign but is politically themed for the election year. The site is called Left vs. Right and (probably) takes its inspiration from the old Saturday Night Live skit point/counterpoint, featuring Dan Ackroyd and Jane Curtain, which was itself a parody of a long-running “60 Minutes” debate segment.

A left-leaning male and a right-leaning female commentator snipe at each other and make quips while they wait for users to input terms into the search box.

While Ms. Dewey was successful in generating lots of coverage and buzz, it’s not clear that it did anything for Microsoft’s search market share.

Related Topics: Microsoft: Bing | Microsoft: Marketing

About The Author: Greg Sterling is a Contributing Editor at Search Engine Land. He writes a personal blog Screenwerk, about SoLoMo issues and connecting the dots between online and offline. He also posts at Internet2Go, which is focused on the mobile Internet. Follow him @gsterling. See more articles by Greg Sterling

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