Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery

You've all heard of Bing by now, and how they are challenging Google Search. Did you ever wonder HOW they are trying to do that? Well, today we found out. They're cheating.

From Search Engine Land:
"Google: Bing Is Cheating, Copying Our Search Results" by Danny Sullivan
http://searchengineland.com/google-bing-is-cheating-copying-our-search-results-62914

Long story short: Microsoft Internet Explorer reports the results of Google searches back to Microsoft, and sometimes Bing uses those results as its own. Really.

From the article: "Google has run a sting operation that it says proves Bing has been watching what people search for on Google, the sites they select from Google’s results, then uses that information to improve Bing’s own search listings. Bing doesn’t deny this."

Here is one example, where Google generated a fabricated result from a random text string.

And the same search on Bing.  Isn't that funny, an exact match for the search result!

Sullivan has this opinion: "When Bing launched in 2009, the joke was that Bing stood for either 'Because It’s Not Google' or 'But It’s Not Google.' Mining Google’s searches makes me wonder if the joke should change to 'Bing Is Now Google.' I think Bing should develop its own search voice without using Google’s as a tuning fork."


Here is Google's description of the situation and what they did to prove that Microsoft was copying them. From The Official Google Blog:
"Microsoft’s Bing uses Google search results—and denies it"
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/02/microsofts-bing-uses-google-search.html


Here's Microsoft's response. Try to keep from laughing out loud. If you can. From the Bing Search Blog:
"Thoughts on search quality"
http://www.bing.com/community/site_blogs/b/search/archive/2011/02/01/thoughts-on-search-quality.aspx

"We use over 1,000 different signals and features in our ranking algorithm. A small piece of that is clickstream data we get from some of our customers, who opt-in to sharing anonymous data as they navigate the web in order to help us improve the experience for all users."

"It [the sting operation] was a creative tactic by a competitor, and we’ll take it as a back-handed compliment."
Okay, dudes. If you say so.

"From its inception, we have had what we believe is a distinct approach to search, and the features and innovation in Bing..."
Uh-huh. By copying Google. That's a distinct approach?


Finally, it appears that Microsoft has been doing this for years. From Business Insider:
"Yes, Bing Has Been Copying Google Search Results FOR YEARS" by Matt Rosoff
http://www.businessinsider.com/bing-is-cribbing-from-google-search-results-2011-2


Oh, one more link, just because it has a cool graphic. From Downloadsquad:
"Bing caught copying search results from Google" by Sebastian Anthony
http://downloadsquad.switched.com/2011/02/01/bing-caught-copying-search-results-from-google/

Colbert weighed in on this issue. Take a look at this. From the Colbert Report:
"Bing Gets Served"
http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/373135/february-02-2011/bing-gets-served