Microsoft is back on the Chromebook warpath

Just over a week ago, Microsoft lashed out at Google with its latest installment in the Scroogled campaign, hiring Pawn Stars to belittle the Chromebook platform. Reaction ranged from positive to negative, but it can't be argued that it did get attention. Despite those negatives, Microsoft has no intention of backing down, and actually added another video to the archive today.

This time, the company has enlisted the aid of its popular spokesperson Ben Rudolph, "Ben the PC Guy", of "Smoked by Windows Phone" fame. Microsoft sent Rudolph out on the streets of Venice, California with a Chromebook in his hands and a camera crew in tow.

The results are rather predictable. Rudolph proceeds to stop people and ask what they use their computer for. Shockingly, nobody responds email and web surfing, by far the two most popular answers in a random set of average users. Instead, the cameras seem to find only customers who wish to use Office, Photoshop, and the likes.

Rudolph, of course, has a Windows PC along for the trip, just to show these poor people what it can do and ask which they would prefer to have. Again, the results are unsurprising.

Both platforms have a place, and the Chromebook is just fine for the casual user, in most cases. The irony of writing this story actually revealed something of that. I attempted to watch the YouTube video on my Windows 8.1 PC, from which I am now writing, only to have it fail to load multiple times (I hasten to add that is not normal, I watch videos on here all the time). I was forced to watch the latest Scroogled attack on the HP Chromebook 11, where it played just fine. For the record, the little circle of dots over the video on this PC is still spinning round as I conclude this. For some tasks, simple is better.