Bonum Certa Men Certa

comScore -- Paid by Microsoft -- Finally Admits Its Figures Are Bogus, Gamed

Carl Icahn



Summary: Microsoft uses comScore, Yahoo!, Carl Icahn, and even the oil spill (with Stephen Colbert's help) to promote its lies

Microsoft's paid partner comScore [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10] has been used by Microsoft to show gains while Microsoft was actually not making gains; rather, Microsoft was losing market share, according to independent companies that claimed to be measuring the same thing. We have shamed comScore for its bogus, US-only 'share' estimates, which we claimed to be "corrupted", possibly by the conflict of interests comScore has with its paymaster, Microsoft.



According to news, comScore doubts its own 'statistics'. That's putting it generously. comScore actually admits that it's bogus, but it hasn't said anything until recently, still leaving publications to misinterpret its false data, claiming that Microsoft gained. How much information has comScore distorted so far? And for how long? Surely enough to make Microsoft's investment in it pay off.

Microsoft is said to be playing tricks using Yahoo! and comScore uses that to pass the blame (Net Applications, which is also funded by Microsoft, used a similar diversionary/blame-passing trick last year). As it's put by two Microsoft boosters [1, 2], comScore blames others for its own lies.

The May comScore U.S. search market share data is out, and both Bing and Yahoo are showing gains over April, while Google is down slightly. But even comScore is questioning its own data.

Both Yahoo and Microsoft are including links on their respective Yahoo and MSN portal pages “that are search queries disguised as content,” according to a story from Business Insider. The pair also “have been stitching together image slideshows as search queries, too,” the post explains.


More here:

Comscore Says It'll Fix Search Share Measurement Now That Yahoo And Microsoft Are Gaming It



Yahoo and Microsoft's Bing have recently been "gaining" market share in comScore's search engine stats for somewhat sketchy reasons: The companies have increasingly been putting a ton of links on their popular homepages that are search queries disguised as content, and have been stitching together image slideshows as search queries, too.


And also here:



“Microsoft is manipulating its statistics to boost its internet search marketshare.”
      --Anonymous
How come nobody points any fingers at comScore? They seems to have kept silent on the issue for far too long. Microsoft has been spamming with false search queries in order to boost its count for several years now, so there is no room for surprise that Microsoft is cheating, as always. In reality, Google keeps increasing in share, especially globally where Microsoft has less than 5% in terms of market share in search. Anonymous people in USENET have more to say about it. One argued that "Microsoft gaming its search marketshare", explaining further that "Microsoft is manipulating its statistics to boost its internet search€ marketshare. Searches on the MSN website and even accessing content on€  the Live websites are being counted as Internet search queries.€  Comscore is altering its algorithms to preclude these from counting as€  searches.

"I've mentioned before in this NG that Microsoft is rigging IE and Windows so€  every non-recognized command is automatically send to Bing. These are€  not proper internet searches and shouldn't be counted IMHO. If we€  deduct these I wouldn't be surprised Microsoft's search marketshare€  falls well below 10%, maybe even below 5%."

Let's not forget the effect of Microsoft's hijacking of Yahoo!. As noted in a new article from The Associated Press:

In one recent battle, he tried to oust Yahoo Inc.'s board in 2008 after the company turned down Microsoft Corp.'s $47.5 billion takeover offer. Yahoo eventually appeased Icahn by allowing him to take a board seat himself rather than kicking out the rest of the company's directors. Icahn left Yahoo's board last year, happy with the company's new CEO, Carol Bartz, and its decision to hire Microsoft to provide search results.


Icahn was communicating with Microsoft throughout this gig; they were not separate. This is an experienced vulture for hire and corporate "agitator", as Yahoo's Yang/management called him. He is an unwanted infiltrator who uses money to break companies apart. Thanks to him, Microsoft executives took key positions inside Yahoo! and Microsoft is now taking away its userbase, too [1, 2].

“Icahn was communicating with Microsoft throughout this gig; they were not separate.”As Microsoft Nick put it, "Microsoft Aims To Power Yahoo Search By The Holidays" ("The Yahoo and Microsoft Search Alliance" calls it another article).

There are some other new articles about the subject [1, 2] and the second Microsoft Nick says that Microsoft's algorithms will soon power Yahoo!

Given that Microsoft changes its own 'search' results to suit its own agenda, this is bad for civilisation's information. It is shameless, but not shameless enough for Colbert to say "No" to sellout. All the Microsoft boosters use his fake (paid-for) endorsement [1, 2, 3], which is advertising for Microsoft and specifically for PR that takes advantage of a major disaster [1, 2] (gulf coast oil spill). Microsoft has no qualm about using disasters (which kill people) to make more money and deceive the public.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Our Case is a Very Easy Win, the SLAPPs From Microsofters Were a Grave Error, and Censoring Information Won't Work (It'll Only Ever Backfire)
Censoring is what people do when they lose the argument
 
Abuse Inside the Polish Patent Office (UPRP) - Part II: Turning a Once-Respected Patent Office Into a Circus and Laughing Stock
It's not legal, but administrators who don't care about the law and don't fear the law would just go ahead and turn things to junk
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, June 04, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, June 04, 2025
Slopwatch: Mindless Slop Pieces, Fake Images and Text, Linux FUD on the Cheap
spewed out by Microsoft-controlled LLMs
Links 04/06/2025: Workers' Strikes, Sudan Exodus
Links for the day
Links 04/06/2025: Linux Foundation PR Spam and Lee Jae-myung Wins Election
Links for the day
Gemini Links 04/06/2025: Future Leaders of the World and Platforming Jordan Peterson
Links for the day
Links 04/06/2025: WSL Backfiring on Microsoft and "Disney, Microsoft Announce Massive Layoffs"
Links for the day
Say the Truth, the Rest Will Follow
There's no guarantee that writing the truth will result in an audience (or readership), but over time - in the long run - people generally gravitate towards what they know or feel to be crude truth, not just what's comforting (albeit false or self-deluding, usually groupthink dictated from above)
How to Expose High-Level Corruption Without Getting in (Too Much) Trouble
Democracy depends on free press and freedom of the press depends on being able to safely publish (and keep available) material that bad people don't want to be known to anybody
In-Depth EPO Coverage at Techrights Turns Eleven
11 years is a very long time
Windows Measured Below 10% in Afghanistan, GNU/Linux Gaining a Lot
about 80% are Android (Linux) users, compared to only about 10% for Windows
Poland's Political Predicament and Social Control Media
Democracy and fake "tech" don't mix well; the latter tends to interfere with the former and that's why we get more "Putins" out there
EPO: Taking Away From the Staff to Give More to the Rich
The Central Staff Committee (CSC) wrote to EPO staff earlier this week
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, June 03, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, June 03, 2025
Abuse Inside the Polish Patent Office (UPRP) - Part I: It's a Lot Like the EPO
we can commence a series soon
Gemini Links 04/06/2025: Inescapable Questions and Quitting All "Oligarch Tech"
Links for the day
Slopwatch: Linux FUD From Slopfarms, Blaming Linux for Microsoft Issues; Even WebProNews Has Become a Slopfarm (Googlebombing "Linux" With Slop Images and Fake/Plagiarised Text)
The Web is really getting bad; it's also overwhelmed by fake material or plagiarised material, wherein the plagiarism gets disguised/hidden by LLM sausage factories
Links 03/06/2025: Tiananmen Square Massacre Censorship and Growing Military Activities Around Taiwan
Links for the day
Linux is Already Dominant (Android), Let's Make GNU/Linux Dominant in Desktops/Laptops as Well
"Dr. Stallman recently warned everybody about Microsoft."
The Loyalty to Microsoft and the Salaries From Microsoft (Funding SLAPPs Against Techrights and Tux Machines)
Garrett always knows better. He knows everything best.
Windows Falls in Italy as GNU/Linux Jumps to 5%
Italy knows a thing or two about digital autonomy
Nigeria is All Android and Google
Windows down to almost nothing in Africa's largest population
Mass Layoffs at Microsoft (Second Wave) Not Limited to Redmond
"More layoffs at Microsoft as axe falls in Washington and California"
Gemini Links 03/06/2025: Forth System and "Common Lisp is a Dumpster"
Links for the day
The Leaks Were Right: Mass Layoffs at Microsoft in May, Then Another Wave in June
Just as we've been saying for over a month
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, June 02, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, June 02, 2025