Politically Tinged Promotion For Live Search

Jan 24, 2008 at 10:30am ET by Greg Sterling

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.

Greg Sterling is a Contributing Editor at Search Engine Land, and writes a personal blog Screenwerk, examining the broader world of media and advertising. He also posts at a Local Mobile Search, which is focused on the mobile Internet.

See more articles by Greg Sterling >

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