Doesn't this make Bing practically useless? I mean I go to an alternative search engine to get alternative search results...
Google: Bing Is Cheating, Copying Our Search Results
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Re: Google: Bing Is Cheating, Copying Our Search Results
#12> It strongly suggests that Bing was copying Google’s results, by watching what some people do at Google via Internet Explorer. Wow, it almost seems that is exactly what they are doing, which is some pretty dirty stuff. Now MS always had a shady track record, but I thought recently the company got a lot better.
You're crazy if you think every player in this space won't opt into "shady" if it means a better user experience. This is just a "shady" we get to hear about.
Re: Google: Bing Is Cheating, Copying Our Search Results
#13Doesn't the Google toolbar do essentially the same thing they are saying IE is doing?
If you enable the "show PR" thing on it, but that is (or at least was when I last used it) off by default. And Google specifically say they won't use the data for this sort of thing.
Re: Google: Bing Is Cheating, Copying Our Search Results
#14It may not be illegal or 'cheating', but it's incredibly stupid for the same reason cheating is: Without the person you are cheating from, you can't pass the test!
In the case, the customers don't get relevant results unless other potential customers use the competition! In short, Bing's results are only good if Google is popular.
Why would you invest time relying on your competition? Shouldn't you be striving to match or beat them, rather than trying to piggy-back on them?
Re: Google: Bing Is Cheating, Copying Our Search Results
#15Hmmm. Let's say that Bing sets up a script that sends queries to Google and then records the results. That's clearly copying. But what Bing does is when you use its toolbar, it watches what you do and uses that information to rank results. Is that really copying? It showed Google's Honeypot page because Google's engineers were clicking on the Honeypot page with the toolbar installed. That isn't copying Google's results, that's copying the actions of Bing toolbar users.
This can easily be demonstrated. Google can set up a second honeypot but instruct its engineers not to click on the link, ever. If it shows up in Bing's results, then Bing is watching what Google returns and scraping its results.
But if the second Honeypot doesn't show up in Bing's results, then clearly Bing isn't copying Google's results, it's copying its toolbar's preference for links.
The entire thing is moot to me. The takeaway in't whether Bing copies Google. The takeaway is that Bing's toolbar is spyware :-)
Re: Google: Bing Is Cheating, Copying Our Search Results
#16MS has a long history of stealing and sabotage. This doesn't surprise me one bit.
Re: Google: Bing Is Cheating, Copying Our Search Results
#17Doesn't this make Bing practically useless? I mean I go to an alternative search engine to get alternative search results...
Sure, but if it's the default in whatever app/browser you're using, you might not bother switching to Google as long as it gets decent results.
Re: Google: Bing Is Cheating, Copying Our Search Results
#18Doesn't the Google toolbar do essentially the same thing they are saying IE is doing?
I don't think that's true - at least, I've not seen any evidence. There's a good chance the Google toolbar sends back browser data, but I think it's extraordinarily unlikely that Google snoops on what people are searching for on Bing, and what results they end up clicking on, and then adjusts their search results on the back of that.
Re: Google: Bing Is Cheating, Copying Our Search Results
#19Hmmm. Let's say that Bing sets up a script that sends queries to Google and then records the results. That's clearly copying. But what Bing does is when you use its toolbar, it watches what you do and uses that information to rank results. Is that really copying? It showed Google's Honeypot page because Google's engineers were clicking on the Honeypot page with the toolbar installed. That isn't copying Google's resul…
but the link between the obscure query and the click on the page wouldn't have been made without bing knowing the user first searched for the query on google, no? if it were simply boosting page clicks that would be one thing, but how else could rim.com rank 1st for "mbzrxpgjys"?
Re: Google: Bing Is Cheating, Copying Our Search Results
#20Doesn't the Google toolbar do essentially the same thing they are saying IE is doing?
This is addressed in the article. It says that google uses toolbar latency to determine page load latency and that is the only way toolbar data affects page ranking.