Bonum Certa Men Certa

Microsoft Might Sabotage Google's Big Announcement Using Shills

When Ina Friedshill [1, 2] tried to rain on Google's parade, she later received this response from Google: "Sometimes, as in the case of Google Chrome, this means that the legal terms for a specific product may include terms that don't apply well to the use of that product. We are working quickly to remove language from Section 11 of the current Google Chrome terms of service."



“The Maureen O'Gara incidents teach a lot about the ways such a routine works behind the scenes.”For those who do not know, Microsoft's 'public relations' figure in CNET (motives are always disguised) muddied the water a bit when Google announced Chrome. This is only to be expected and it is also likely that Microsoft's intelligence staff knew about Chrome well in advance, so they could prepare 'FUD points' to sling via the media, using special friends like Ina Friedshill. The Maureen O'Gara incidents [1, 2] teach a lot about the ways such a routine works behind the scenes.

Licensing ambiguities/issues aside, there are some other known 'Microsoft moles', who walk around praising Microsoft in the press and slamming its rivals. Some of them wear an "analyst" hat. A new example you can find here, under the article "Analyst Says Google's Chrome Browser Needs Polishing." Looking inside the article for the 'meat' by which a sensationalist headline was chosen, people can find only this:

"But for all the hype, Michael Gartenberg, vice president of mobile strategy for Juptermedia, said Chrome is somewhat underwhelming for a first release."

Michael Gartenberg, eh?

Who is this guy? Is he a shill? Why, yes he is! He's a former "Microsoft evangelist" on the company's payroll.

We even mentioned him previously in [1, 2, 3] and I once sent him an E-mail, to which he replied, denying any connections with Microsoft.

Let's look carefully at what we have here.

Evangelist Gartenberg back to being analyst



After only three weeks at Microsoft as an "evangelist," Michael Gartenberg is returning to his old job as vice president and research director at JupiterResearch.


Perhaps he has had enough 'recruitment time' in Redmond. Shortly afterwards came his anti-GNU/Linux piece, which made it into a lot of publications and was finally rebutted here.

More recently he was found praising one of Microsoft's most disastrous products: the Zune.

Microsoft upgrades Zune players to challenge Apple iPods



[...]

"It's a nice evolutionary development to the product line," said Jupiter Research analyst Michael Gartenberg.


Gartenberg is surely part of 'The Club'.

"Working behind the scenes to orchestrate "independent" praise of our technology, and damnation of the enemy's, is a key evangelism function during the Slog. "Independent" analyst's report should be issued, praising your technology and damning the competitors (or ignoring them). "Independent" consultants should write columns and articles, give conference presentations and moderate stacked panels, all on our behalf (and setting them up as experts in the new technology, available for just $200/hour). "Independent" academic sources should be cultivated and quoted (and research money granted). "Independent" courseware providers should start profiting from their early involvement in our technology. Every possible source of leverage should be sought and turned to our advantage."

--Microsoft, internal document [PDF]



Other known AstroTurfers are clinging onto any morsel of dirt there is against Google Chrome. They pick up anything that they can find, then spreading it all over the place. It's happening at the moment. We base this on observations made throughout the past couple of days. People whose preference is blatantly anti-GNU/Linux articles (sometimes dedicated just to that) and other Microsoft competitors are all over this one.

Could it be because Microsoft really needs IE8 to break the Web? Dana reports:

Microsoft’s decision, with IE8 beta two, to make its proprietary standards the default in corporate Intranets, defining Web pages using open standards as “broken,” may be the final break between these two Internets.

Can the two Internets be brought back together? And can we return to an Internet where consumers have choices and are free to do as they will?


Could it be because, according to some new tests, IE8 is a resource pig?

In a multi-tab browsing session against 10 websites under Vista, IE8 grabbed about 380MB of memory, in contrast with 250MB consumed by IE7 and just 159MB by Firefox 3.0.1. That makes IE8 nearly one and-a-half times more memory intensive than IE7 and well more than twice as greedy as Firefox.


Could it be because reports are suggesting that Google Apps, for which Chrome is optimised, are 'stealing' customers from Microsoft? Sales of Microsoft Office are already declining.

Google Apps tops 1 million businesses



Almost all of the company's revenue comes from its search engine, which last quarter accounted for more than $5 billion. New initiatives, such as the Chrome browser, Google Gears, and Google Friend Connect, are focused on building a mostly open-source Internet operating system out of Google technology in order to funnel more user data and targeted advertising opportunities into the Googleplex financial engine.


Could it be because Google is said to have 'gained' 1% market share in just one day or so, whereas Microsoft lost 1% in the past month?

Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Explorer lost nearly a full percentage point in market share during August, the browser's biggest drop in three months, a Web metrics firm said today.


This Web metric is highly inaccurate if not altogether meaningless, but trends as opposed to absolute number may say something. For an explanation about this "Web metrics firm", see this previous post.

Google weather

Comments

Recent Techrights' Posts

Open Source Initiative (OSI) Resists Software Freedom, Even by Attacking Its Own
The OSI is compromised
 
Links 28/08/2025: Chatbots Distorting/Fabricating History and Also Driving Suicide
Links for the day
Gemini Links 28/08/2025: Back in Japan and Why "Hacker News" Sucks
Links for the day
A Much-Needed Wake-up Call to Users of Wordpress.com, Blogspot, Substack and All Those Other Outsourced (and Centralised) Platforms
There are several lessons in there
The UEFI 9/11 - Part II - Campaign of Censorship and Defamation Against Critics
In dictatorships, humour serves an important role. It's tragic.
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, August 27, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, August 27, 2025
Slopwatch: linuxsecurity.com, Slopfarms in Google News, and More
Some readers of ours end up sending us links that are from slopfarms, not realising those are slopfarms
Gemini Links 27/08/2025: Katrina Memories and Google Versus Software Freedom
Links for the day
Links 27/08/2025: Police Against Media Freedom in the UK, Energy-Hungry Countries Targeted by China
Links for the day
Microsoft Windows Fell to All-Time Lows in Egypt This Summer, Vista 11 Adoption Decreases While GNU/Linux Increases
Vista 11 is going down rather than up
Links 27/08/2025: Microsoft Demoralises Staff With Slop Demands, Leaving Mastodon Explained
Links for the day
12 Hours Ago The Register MS Published a Fake (Paid-for) Article, But This One for a Change Did Not Promote a Ponzi Scheme
There are also Free software alternatives, but they don't pay The Register MS for "synthetic" so-called 'journalism'
More People Need to Call Out and Put a Stop to Serial Sloppers
Unless slopfarms are stopped, people will read and share Microsoft propaganda made by chatbots
Gemini Links 27/08/2025: Headphones and Tartarus
Links for the day
Morale at Microsoft is Terrible (Proprietary Plagiarism Machines Have No Future, LLM Slop is a Bubble)
The slop sceptics/critics are going to have lots of "told you so" moments
GNOME "governance issues, staff reduction, etc." amidst Albanian whistleblowing and women trafficking
Notice the connection to Software Freedom Conservancy (SFC) and GNOME
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, August 26, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, August 26, 2025
Richard Stallman (RMS) Was Right About "Sideloading" in 1996
We now have computers that treat booting GNU/Linux like an act of "Sideloading"
Panama: Windows Down From 97% "Market Share" to Less Than 30%
In 2009, Windows was measured at 97.24% (compared to 62.32% right now or less than 30% if one also counts Android)
The UEFI 9/11 - Part I - Introduction to Impending Catastrophe (Microsoft Preventing People From Booting Non-Windows Systems)
eight-part series
Why Techrights is Slow Today (Bot Floods)
We don't know if those bots are connected to LLMs (we have not checked), but that is a possibility
Slopwatch: DDoS Slop, LinuxBSDos.com Spam, and Slopfarms in Google News, Including webpronews.com
Among the news we also found fakes, albeit not so much today
Links 26/08/2025: "Ballooning Debt" in France and "Transnational Repression in the UK"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 26/08/2025: Listening to Alcest and Google Doing Evil (Users Installing Software is "Sideloading" and Prohibited)
Links for the day
Links 26/08/2025: DNS Tampering and TikTok Layoffs
Links for the day
Microsoft's Windows "Market Share" Overestimated
Microsoft's income sources are shrinking
We Shall See...
My wife and I are hardly the first victims of Brett Wilson LLP
This New Determination on a Case Echoes the Modus Operandi of Microsoft's Serial Strangler vs Techrights (Its Online Decision/Judgment Says Truth and Public Interest Defend the Publisher)
Noel Anthony Clarke hopefully has enough money left to pay his victims, which include the publishers
Going Offline
There was life before the Net
The Register MS Has Apparently Shut Down Its Office
It is basically a fake address on the face of it
There Are Also Expectations of IBM Layoffs Very Soon With "Narrative Control."
Some of them mention Red Hat and how IBM failed to achieve anything substantial with that acquisition
After at Least Two Rounds of Mass Layoffs in August Microsoft Said to Have "September Layoff Confirmed - Performance Based"
Those "M5 level meetings" sound plausible
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, August 25, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, August 25, 2025