Microsoft has not been shy about going after Google's privacy and ad policies in the past and today the company did so again. The new attack came as part of a new pilot program Microsoft is launching for K-12 and private schools that it says provides an ad-free search for kids who use the Internet.
Microsoft's press release announces the new Bing at Schools program, and interested schools and school districts can sign up for the effort at the Bing For Schools website. Microsoft states:
Upon activating Bing for Schools, Bing searches from within the school network will have three key enhancements: Removal of all advertisements from Bing search results, automatic strict filtering to help block adult content, (and) augmented privacy protections.
In addition, Microsoft is letting anyone who is signed up to the Bing Rewards program to help their local school system. Microsoft will let people pick a school and then all of the credits they generate via Bing Rewards will be directed towards that school. Once 30,000 Bing Rewards points are reached, Microsoft will sent a free Surface RT tablet to that school. Finally, Microsoft will offer free daily lesson plans to schools that are based on the image that is chosen each day for the Bing.com home page.
Microsoft says that a number of school systems have already signed up to use Bing For Schools, including the Los Angeles Unified School District, Atlanta Public Schools, Fresno Unified School District and Detroit Country Day School; Microsoft says those systems cover 800,000 students that are now using Bing For Schools.
Of course, Microsoft is using this program to take a shot at Google, including the new video shown above that shows a kid who we assume is using Google to search for items at school. Instead of learning about Mesopotamia, the student tells her parents she learned about credit reports and vitamin supplement deals.
Source: Microsoft
31 Comments - Add comment