I hate to say it, but Microsoft has a _lot_ more experience in bare knuckle fighting than Google does. And, I'm betting that Microsoft is very interested in getting into a brawl over this one.
I really don't think that Google wants to get into a fight over who sucks up users click streams to advance their business...
Those who live in glass houses really flick boogers.
Point is, they have a script thingy that goes "when our user searches Google for some word and then clicks on a result, make that Bing's result for the same word (plus 999 other things)". I would say most of the intelligence there is being extracted from Google doing the search, not from the user choosing the result.
I'm not saying Bing should go to jail or anything. The rules of the search game are still being written. But let's give credit for search engineering where credit is due.
I forgot to bookmark it but once I followed a link from reddit to google images and it somehow defaulted back to the old method. So something on the URL can toggle it, I just have no clue what it was and feel stupid for not researching it right there and then.
Just recently they are tinkering with maps and the new controls are so sluggish and non-intuitive, I have to dig two or three levels constantly. Every so often it reverts to the old interface but the new one looks like it's here to stay. Very fustrating.
Microsoft's behavior comes across as sleazy to me, which no doubt is Google's intention. I respect mathematical advancements and clever algorithmic solutions to search which Google has always been impressive with. The method Microsoft is using with their toolbar just comes across as lame and uninteresting.
Who the hell is in charge of the PR for these two companies to allow them to late night bitch at each other over Twitter??? These companies rake in billions per quarter and are acting like they're gonna be on TMZ tonight.
Remember, in any corporate fist-fight, it is the media that is going to benefit the most, so if there isn't a fight occurring in the wild, it makes sense to stage one.
The thing I find most interesting about Microsoft's tweets here is that at no point does Frank ever actually deny copying Google's search results. Well, except to tell a bald-faced lie that obviously isn't true. I mean, if Microsoft really had evidence that Google had its employees report the sites to MS customer feedback, I have a feeling they'd be making it known some place other that Frank Shaw's twitter account.
