Jerimiah Yap

Microsoft has taken advantage of Google's mishap last year. Last year it was discovered that Google has been tracking users of the Safari web browser. Google did this in order to display ads that should've been blocked by Safari.

This information is vital to Google's competitors such Microsoft's search engine Bing. The software company is using every bit of it as an advantage.

Google was fined $22.5 million by the US Federal Trade Commission in the first quarter of this year because of this.

Microsoft is pushing hard for Bing to become the preferred search engine of users. Last month it launched a campaign called "Bing it on" and focused on users who "blindly" select Bing over Google.

Microsoft directs Safari users to a page where it states:

"If you are a Safari user, Google may have recently tracked you even though it promised it would not. Want to do something about it? Stop searching with Google and start searching with Bing."

The privacy settings of Safari users were bypassed by Google. This includes all Apple devices such as iPads, iPod Touches, iPhones, Macs and Macbooks.

"If the person was logged in to Google+ and had agreed to see the +1 button on ads, the cookie would contain encoded information about that account. If the person wasn't logged in or hadn't agreed to see the button, the cookie would still be placed on the computer, but it would be blank," according to a report by the Wall Street Journal.

Google is currently running quality control to keep the controversy under wraps.