As we’re all well aware, with the recent launch of Windows Phone 7, Microsoft is about to enter into yet another major war with Google, this time in the mobile space (or at least, they hope it will be a war). So perhaps it shouldn’t be too surprising today that when one of them bought an ad on Twitter, the other followed suit. Yes, both Microsoft and Google are running Promoted ads right next to each other today.
Now, this obviously could be a coincidence. But it seems like it could be calculated as well. After all, they’re both specifically targeting the mobile crowd with these ads. Microsoft is running a Promoted Trend for Windows Phone, while Google is running a Promoted Account for Google Mobile.
One thing to note is that while Promoted Trends show up across all of Twitter no matter what, Promoted Accounts are supposed to vary on a user-by-user basis. That said, I’ve asked a number of people and all of them seem to see the same GoogleMobile account as being promoted.
Might we start to see more rivals doing this? On Google, rivals advertising on queries for their competitors is one of the oldest tricks in the book. On Twitter, those doing the advertising will have to be a little more clever, but perhaps we’re starting to see that.
[via Steve Olechowski]
Created in 2006, Twitter is a global real-time communications platform with 400 million monthly visitors to twitter.com, more than 200 million monthly active users around the world. We see a billion tweets every 2.5 days on every conceivable topic. World leaders, major athletes, star performers, news organizations and entertainment outlets are among the millions of active Twitter accounts through which users can truly get the pulse of the planet.
Microsoft, founded in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen, is a veteran software company, best known for its Microsoft Windows operating system and the Microsoft Office suite of productivity software. Starting in 1980 Microsoft formed a partnership with IBM allowing Microsoft to sell its software package with the computers IBM manufactured. Microsoft is widely used by professionals worldwide and largely dominates the American corporate market. Additionally, the company has ventured into hardware with consumer products such as the Zune and...
Google provides search and advertising services, which together aim to organize and monetize the world’s information. In addition to its dominant search engine, it offers a plethora of online tools and platforms including: Gmail, Maps, YouTube, and Google+, the company’s extension into the social space. Most of its Web-based products are free, funded by Google’s highly integrated online advertising platforms AdWords and AdSense. Google promotes the idea that advertising should be highly targeted and relevant to users thus providing...
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