Bing simply steals search results from Google
Google and Microsoft were already in online duels against each other, but search engine technologies provoke both to initiate a new battle in this field. If previous arguments were mostly insignificant attempts that could not result in real actions, last post that went public in official Google blog includes open critical facts against Microsoft hedging strategy in search technologies. That publication indicates that Bing simply steals search results from Google.
Do you think that is impossible? The facts are quite obvious. It's not a lawsuit case yet, Google tries to punish the rival using the power of public opinion and justice, calling Microsoft for open discussion online. Considering that key consuming audience cares enough about quality of search results they use, the strategy seems to be well-grounded. If you think that is impossible, it makes sense, believe me.
"Put another way, some Bing results increasingly look like an incomplete, stale version of Google results—a cheap imitation. At Google we strongly believe in innovation and are proud of our search quality. We’ve invested thousands of person-years into developing our search algorithms because we want our users to get the right answer every time they search, and that’s not easy. We look forward to competing with genuinely new search algorithms out there—algorithms built on core innovation, and not on recycled search results from a competitor. So to all the users out there looking for the most authentic, relevant search results, we encourage you to come directly to Google. And to those who have asked what we want out of all this, the answer is simple: we’d like for this practice to stop."
Shocked internet surfers worldwide will not come to Microsoft or any other internet tycoon again if they only suspect any evidence of stealing personal user data. And Google understands that pretty well.
What they try to prove is that Microsoft simply copies their search results. For testing purposes guys from Google decided to create a number of manual artificial queries, for example "hfghdjd6fgfdgfd jhgk" and others of that kind. I. e. they make no informative sense for real internet users. Each combination was equipped with a special resulting page that got nothing to do with that artificial query texting. The purpose was to show that such page can never get naturally high in search ranking by those key combinations.
After that they organize implementation testing, a number of Google employees got new laptops with Windows and IE 8 with Bing toolbar installed. Their task was to enter those generated queries on the Google page. Such simple tactics brought results in several weeks. Bing started to return the same results in search for those gibberish queries. Do you still think they are don't smart enough?
That helped Google to conclude that Microsoft is using the user data from their Bing Toolbar, they are able to replicate search results from Google. Another explanation to such a strong evidence is hard to find. And what is more important, a great number of users support them. So we may say that Microsoft just got caught in a simple trap. Screenshots with proper comments and other details are available as well.
The Microsoft is not new to such games and ready to fight back for their customers. Of course they say it's not true and they are ready to prove that. But what Bing gave as a counter-evidence is not so self-explanatory and can be interesting for a small number of nerds only. They gave no clear logic, only some vogue denials that are not very helpful.
"To be clear, we learn from all of our customers. What we saw in today’s story was a spy-novelesque stunt to generate extreme outliers in tail query ranking. It was a creative tactic by a competitor, and we’ll take it as a back-handed compliment. But it doesn’t accurately portray how we use opt-in customer data as one of many inputs to help improve our user experience."
And surely internet audience includes the fans of each party, great number of fans still thinks about choosing another club to support. Microsoft party offers some new challenges to discuss. Yes, they are not saints, but Google can also have something they are not eager to witness about. If consider usability and interface details, one can see that Google layouts are lightly modified copies of what Bing has offered first. And that can be seen from the landing pages. So the line between imitating and copying is very vogue. Google says potato, and Microsoft says po-tah-to.
But details are important anyway and even small mistakes matter. Google tries to say that there are facts showing that Bing probably relies on Google search results instead of their own algorithms, or other factors can be involved. In other words you can print anything you want, save any search tags or history, that doesn't matter. Bing can just take that from Google using their toolbars, simple and effective, like secret parasitizing on a huge body of a giant. If they really do that, all other things like saving tags or anchor texts, arranging site linking and ranking them higher in search results make no sense. Their algorithm of ranging website domains and search keys may not work.
There are important news for those who are involved in search engine optimization or any similar activities. Their plans should be corrected or revised, costs and capitals already invested are neglected. If Google manages to prove their suggestions, those who tried to promote their sites with Bing will stop their campaigns and think twice before paying for any ads or promotions. It seems that it's only the first fight in this discrediting war of compromise.
It's interesting to see where the situation can go from here and how many times the winner will change. Those who say Bing is guilty can have something to remember about Google. And what is your opinion?
