Who Do You Trust Least?

Mister Furious points to a story on Yahoo! "about how a recent study found AOL to be the least trusted site on the net. It even got lower trust ratings then Microsoft." It would be good to see the actual survey questions and results, since they're referred to only in vague terms. Partly because of that, the story could proabably appear in the Onion without raising many eyebrows -- it seems to tacitly acknowledge that to these companies, perception is more important than reality. If you don't use AOL or MSN, one's current ISP is always a good recipient of distrust.

Icon wars

[cigarky]

"Nevertheless, Gartner's Litan said that "the added trust that consumers have in Microsoft gives the company an important leg up in its battle with AOL for online services." Litan added: "Consumers will be more likely to try new Microsoft features embedded in Windows XP (news - web sites), such as Microsoft Messaging."

Gartner has acted as Microsoft's hatchetman before, this fits well as another MS move to counter AOL getting an icon on the desktop on Windows XP via the OEMs.

Apparently the Original Source

[knuth]

The article on Yahoo! appears to be a report based on--turn off JavaScript before you go--this press release from Gartner [gartner.com].

The press release isn't much more detailed, as it is a teaser for a Gartner symposium in October.

It does mention Amazon, but for the most part is framed as a battle between AOL and Microsoft over instant messaging clients.