By now, you’ve undoubtedly heard the news. Google set up a sting operation (how cool is that?) in an attempt to catch Microsoft red-handed stealing their search results. And according to them, they did just that — and made it known. Microsoft has seemingly both sidestepped and denied the claim — and then has sent accusations back Google’s way. The whole thing is amazing, and to be honest, I’m still trying to parse it all. But you can get the whole gist by reading what’s on Techmeme, starting with Danny Sullivan’s original post on the topic.
But what’s most interesting right now is that Google and Microsoft are engaged in a full-on war. Yes, they’ve more or less been at war for many years. But it’s mainly been a quiet war, that takes place behind the scenes and only occasionally includes quick jabs at the other one in public. But now they’re straight-up calling each other liars on Twitter, and their own very popular blogs!
After the news and subsequent fight first broke out this morning. Microsoft immediately put up a rebuttal on their Bing blog, entitled: Thoughts on search quality. That article directly addresses Sullivan’s post but doesn’t directly call out Google for much.
Then things started to get ugly. This prompted Microsoft communication head, Frank Shaw, to take to Twitter in an attempt to swing Microsoft into the offensive postion. Here were his three key tweets:
1. Don’t be fooled. Google wants to change subject because they’re under investigation in the US and Europe for manipulating search results.—
Frank X. Shaw (@fxshaw) February 01, 2011
2. Google collects customer data from Chrome and Android. Pot calling kettle black? http://bit.ly/eLQV70—
Frank X. Shaw (@fxshaw) February 01, 2011
3. Harry Shum very clear http://bit.ly/hYvCIM on 1k plus signals used in ranking algorithm…includes clickstream data.—
Frank X. Shaw (@fxshaw) February 01, 2011
Google’s Matt Cutts fired back on Twitter:
So far Bing's response seems to be "We don't copy Google's results. Of course we do." http://goo.gl/8VoDJ vs. http://goo.gl/yW4Ia—
Matt Cutts (@mattcutts) February 01, 2011
Google then decided to escalate things further by using their official blog to very directly call Microsoft out with a post titled: Microsoft’s Bing uses Google search results—and denies it. I mean, just think about that for a second.
Then, about an hour ago, there was this great exchange on Twitter in response to Dave Winer posting a link to the original story:
Oooops looks like Google caught Microsoft cheating in search. http://r2.ly/853k—
Dave Winer (@davewiner) February 01, 2011
@davewiner no they didn't.—
Frank X. Shaw (@fxshaw) February 01, 2011
@fxshaw The evidence is pretty convincing—
Dave Winer (@davewiner) February 01, 2011
@davewiner Google had employees log onto ms customer feedback system and send results to Microsoft.—
Frank X. Shaw (@fxshaw) February 01, 2011
Bang!
@fxshaw @davewiner normal people call that "IE8".—
Matt Cutts (@mattcutts) February 01, 2011
Zing!
@mattcutts hey if this whole engineering thing doesn't work out for you, try PR — you've got the chops for it.
—
Frank X. Shaw (@fxshaw) February 02, 2011
Pow!
Re Microsoft's Bing copying Google search results- What do we want? "We'd like for this practice to stop." http://goo.gl/f8XiK—
Andrew Kovacs (@akovacs) February 01, 2011
Ouch!
Grab the popcorn and pull up a ring-side seat!
[image: The Weinstein Company]
Google provides search and advertising services, which together aim to organize and monetize the world’s information. In addition to its dominant search engine, it offers a plethora of online tools and platforms including: Gmail, Maps, YouTube, and Google+, the company’s extension into the social space. Most of its Web-based products are free, funded by Google’s highly integrated online advertising platforms AdWords and AdSense. Google promotes the idea that advertising should be highly targeted and relevant to users thus providing...
Microsoft, founded in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen, is a veteran software company, best known for its Microsoft Windows operating system and the Microsoft Office suite of productivity software. Starting in 1980 Microsoft formed a partnership with IBM allowing Microsoft to sell its software package with the computers IBM manufactured. Microsoft is widely used by professionals worldwide and largely dominates the American corporate market. Additionally, the company has ventured into hardware with consumer products such as the Zune and...
Bing is a decision (search) engine from Microsoft officially announced on May 28, 2009. It combines technology from the Farecast and Powerset acquisitions, as well as new algorithms and a more colorful page design, to attempt to understand the context behind the search, which Microsoft claims gives users better results. Bing as a brand is also an attempt to eliminate the confusion caused by Microsoft’s “Windows Live” branding. Bing is now everything “search” related, whereas Windows Live encompasses the remnants...
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