Google has touted the overhaul it announced last week as a simplification of detailed but obtuse policies and a way to provide a better user experience.

Microsoft offered up its own Web-based alternatives, saying for instance that users of its free email service, Hotmail, don't have to worry about the content of their emails being used to help target ads.

The attack ads appeared in newspapers including USA Today, The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times.

"Every data point Google collects and connects to you increases how valuable you are to an advertiser," Microsoft says in the ad.

In response, Google published a blog post in which it refuted what it called "myths" about its new privacy policy, saying, "Our privacy controls have not changed. Period."

The company does not dispute that it serves up ads based on words in private emails written by users of Gmail, but says such scanning is automated and is similar to how many email providers filter out spam. It has operated that way since Gmail's introduction in 2004.

Both companies offer several controls to prevent advertisers from tracking users' online activity.

Online expert Danny Sullivan, editor-in-chief of the Web site Search Engine Land, said that Google's privacy policy simplification has turned into a public relations "nightmare," but only because it again focused attention on the kind of data that Google has collected for years.

He said Microsoft is in no position to point fingers, since it also collects a lot of user data from its search engine, Bing, and will adjust search results based...

The company did not specify how many of its 92,000 employees were let go, but a person familiar with the software maker's strategy said about 200 people lost their jobs.

The person spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to disclose details of the restructuring effort.

In a statement, the Redmond, Washington-based company said it was taking steps to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of its marketing operations.

"Some of these changes involved the reduction of a small percentage of marketing positions to better align our resources with our business needs and clarify roles across the marketing function," the company said.

Last month, Microsoft posted flat earnings for the final quarter of 2011 and improved sales of servers, Xbox games and its Office productivity software. Revenue rose 5 percent.

The company is gearing up to release a slate of new products this year, including phones, PCs and Windows 8, an operating system that should work similarly over PCs and tablet computers. A beta version of the software is due out later this month.

Shares gained 36 cents to $29.89 in regular trading. The stock added 6 cents to $29.95 in extended trading.

The researchers, from Carnegie Mellon, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Georgia Institute of Technology, created a Web site called Who Gives a Tweet? at WGATweet.com. Users registering with the site are asked to rate tweets of friends and strangers, and to have theirs similarly rated.

Only About One-Third Enjoyed

Although more than 200 million tweets are sent by Twitter each day, few users get any feedback about whether their followers enjoy their mini-observations, or even if they continue to read them.

The researchers point out that a better understanding of what makes for an interesting tweet could lead to better content filters and other tools, such as automatically showing location check-ins on maps. It could also lead to more effective marketing and political use of Twitter.

One graduate student involved in the research, Kurt Luther at the Georgia Institute of Technology, said that the Who Gives a Tweet? site allows "a more nuanced type of feedback than is currently available," with insight on how updates are seen by different groups.

Over nearly three weeks in December, 1,443 users visited the site, and provided analysis of 43,738 tweets from more than 2,000 user accounts. The comments indicate that slightly more than a third of the tweets, or 36 percent, were enjoyed, while 25 percent were disliked. The feeling toward 39 percent was neutral.

Tweeting Guidelines

Generally speaking, the researchers found, the least-liked tweets are those that relay snippets of other people's conversations, or that give an update on current moods or activities. The best liked were ones that...

Many industry watchers expect Facebook's valuation to range between $75 billion and $100 billion. Facebook wants to raise up to $10 billion, according to The Wall Street Journal. Facebook posted a $1 billion profit in 2011 on $3.71 billion in revenues.

"The social network IPOs have been trending down. What is interesting is there appears to be no connection to financial viability," said Rob Enderle, principal analyst at Enderle Group. "The weakest company was Groupon, which started the strongest. The strongest company was Zynga and it was also the most tightly connected to Facebook and it barely made it out of the gate."

Dampened Success?

As Enderle sees it, Facebook is massively popular but there is also a sense that people are tiring of social networks. And that, for all the hoopla over the long-anticipated Facebook IPO, could significantly dampen their initial success.

"Odds were this would go big initially and then collapse down to a more reasonable price. Facebook is limiting supply to drive initial price into the stratosphere," Enderle said.

"If investors see the subsequent fall like they apparently did with Zynga, Facebook's initial high could be a fraction of numbers we've been discussing so far. And their prospectus does point to a strategy that likely will have them operating in the red, with more investment expenses than revenue for some time after the offering.

"While I still think it will initially come out strong -- it is Facebook, after all -- the risk it won't is increasing, and suggests caution," he said.

Power of Social Advertising

But new research by Catherine Tucker, associate...

Chevrolet rolled out the first Super Bowl smartphone app that allows Big Game watchers to enter a contest to win everything from pizza to a new Camaro. Kia is the first company to show its Super Bowl ad ahead of the game in movie theaters. And Coca Cola set up a Facebook page and Web site so viewers can see its animated polar bears -- one cheering for the New England Patriots and the other for the New York Giants -- reacting to the game in real time.

"The world is changing," says Pio Schunker, Coca Cola's vice president for creative excellence. "We needed to come to the party with something new and different."

Advertisers have big incentives to stand out. With more than 111 million viewers expected to tune into the game, the Super Bowl is by far the biggest stage for marketers. It's also not cheap -- NBC is charging an average of $3.5 million for a 30-second spot. And the competition is fierce: there will be more than 70 TV ads during the Super Bowl battling for attention.

To create buzz, it's no longer enough for marketers to simply get people talking at the water cooler the morning after the game. They also want to engage the people who like reacting to big events like the Super Bowl by posting on Twitter or Facebook or texting their friends, says David Berkowitz, vice president at digital marketing agency 360i.

"People are glued to their digital devices, sometimes sharing far...

Announced Tuesday, Desk.com allows any business to interact with customers on any major social network, via a mobile device. The company said in a statement that the service is "so simple that any company, even one without an IT staff, can get up and running over a weekend."

'First-Class Citizens'

With nearly a quarter of all time spent online being spent on social networks like Facebook and Twitter, Salesforce.com has become a leader in integrating social networks into its customer service offerings.

The company envisions a scenario such as a customer posting a critical comment on Facebook about its newly purchased widget. While a desktop-based customer service worker for the widget maker might be the first stop for responding to the comment, the actual resolution might be better handled by a technical service person, who could be out in the field.

With Desk.com, that ticket can then be picked up by the technical service employee, and resolved via a mobile device. The ticket can be reassigned, have its status or priority changed, or have its customer information modified.

Salesforce said that, according to its data, nearly three-quarters of small businesses use mobile applications in their daily operations. With Desk.com, SMBs can use a help desk that integrates social networks, e-mail, phone and other Web components, making social networks into what the company described as "first-class citizens along with traditional support channels."

Hourly for 'Casual' Reps

Desk.com runs on any smartphone that supports HTML 5, such as Android-based devices and Apple's iPhone. Reporting includes information on how many cases customer service agents have opened, resolved, replied to, reassigned, or reopened, and a dozen pre-built reports offer such data as handling time, time to first...

With the RightNow deal now closed, Oracle has become somewhat chattier about its intentions for the Cloud CRM firm.

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Apple Inc. said Tuesday that Dixons Retail PLC's John Browett will become its top retail executive on April 20. He will report directly to CEO Tim Cook.

Browett fills a job left open when Ron Johnson left to become the CEO of J.C. Penney Co. in November. Johnson pioneered Apple's highly successful retail stores, known for their stark design and their Genius Bar, where Apple customers get technology advice and support.

About two-thirds of Apple's 361 stores are in the U.S. However, of the 40 stores Apple expects to open this fiscal year, three-quarters will be outside the U.S., with China being a major focus. Apple currently has stores in only 12 countries, including the U.S.

Browett has served as CEO of Dixons since 2007. During his tenure, the company continued an aggressive expansion in Europe. It has about 1,200 stores and is Europe's second-largest electronics retailer, after Germany's Media Markt.

Dixons' brands include Currys in the U.K., Elkjop in Norway, Kotsovolos in Greece, Unieuro in Italy and Electro World in Turkey and the Czech Republic.

Analysts give Browett credit for improving customer service at Dixons.

"Our retail stores are all about customer service, and John shares that commitment like no one else we've met," Cook said in a statement Tuesday.

The chain hasn't seen much financial success during his tenure, however, as it has been undercut by the recession and subsequent belt-tightening in Europe.

Dixons' sales have risen only 8 percent in the past five years, and profits are down sharply. Its stock has lost more than 90 percent of its value in that time. It fell 7.6 percent further in London trading Tuesday after news of Browett's...