Microsoft; caught rigging a ZDNet UK poll???

Thanks goes to Slashdot

In December, Java was more popular than .Net for building Web services, according to a ZDNet UK poll, but weeks later the position had dramatically reversed; investigation revealed just what lengths Microsoft will go to to promote its products.

By late December, results seem to suggest that some 69.5% of respondents plan to roll out some web services, with a large majority planning to use Java and a large remainder (21.5%) intending on using Microsoft .Net.

But by the time the poll closed, on 5 January, the position had dramatically changed, with three quarters of voters claiming to be implementing .Net. This apparent sudden change of heart over the Christmas period appears to be the result of a concerted campaign within Microsoft.

According to ZDNet logs :-

A large percentage of votes came from within the .microsoft.com domain
Multiple votes being attempted (poll script blocked most attempts), one noted microsoft.com user tried to vote 228 times!
Automated voting using scripts
and... several of the voters followed a link in an email with the subject "PLEASE STOP AND VOTE FOR .NET!", proved by Exchange kindly giving ZDNet UK the subject and username, which again came from the microsoft.com domain.

The final poll reults show that Microsoft .Net recieved 74.7%, with Java getting 16.1%, Both with 2.8% and Neither getting 6.4%. The total number of votes cast were 1415.

Although votes cast after 21 December are suspect, this latest episode illustrates the importance of Web services -- at least to suppliers, anyway. The inevitable conclusion is that these are some of the first salvos in what will be a bitter PR struggle. Microsoft may have shot itself in the foot this time, but future efforts may be a little more subtle.

News source: ZDNet News UK