Google Calls Out Bing for Stealing its Search Results

[Sabrina Devonic]

Well I use Google Chrome so Microsoft can suck it. Chrome is WAY better then IE. Also who ever uses Bing anyway? I tried using it and its search results never come up with what I want, unless I am very specific with my words.

 

[CrystalShadow]

It's MS, what did you expect?

On a related subject, did you know that IE uses Firefox engine? If you're using IE and enter this link to see its user agent says Mozilla Firefox.

http://whatsmyuseragent.com/

(A user agent is a string that devices and software have to diferentiate ones from others)

Lol. While that doesn't surprise me, a lot of web browsers are interrelated anyway.

I like that link though; I was curious what effect Opera's options to change how it identifies itself result in.
Unsurprisingly, the 'identify as firefox/Internet explorer' options return the string expected for that browser (but with the additional mention of 'Opera' as part of it).
Choosing 'mask as firefox/internet explorer', removes all mention of Opera being involved.

I wonder what Microsoft actually did? Rip the guts out of firefox, or mask their user string for some reason?
I know what I'm betting on. XD

 

[JSkunk22]

I noticed Bing was pretty much Google on day one. I mean, come on.

 

[dakorok]

Microsoft does something immoral? STOP THE PRESSES.
Seriously, though, this isn't too surprising. It's just one more reason for me to laugh at people who use bing. or IE, for that matter.

 

[SomeUnregPunk]

SNIP

SNIP

one guy wants other people to confirm google's statement with their own independent investigations before making a judgment while the other guy claims the fan boy love.


You are on the internet. Instead of pounding on your chest and crying foul, you could easily prove google's statements. Start doing searches of nonsense words while doing searches in bing with nonsense words. Post your results here.

 

[imperialreign]

Well obviously they aren't just running Google under the hood at Bing, but they are using Google search queries to further their search engine, by collecting data on what Google returns to specific search queries.

Think about it, that result for that gibberish came DIRECTLY from Google (because they invented that term-result relationship) which means when Bing doesn't know something, it steals answers from Google.

Sounds like cheating to me.

You're mis-interpreting my post. What I'm trying to point out is that if bing is collecting the most popular results from other search engines via IE users and browser-bar users . . . bing will return those same results because the employees at google created them, and kept searching for them, and the results that search would return.

If you try other gibberish strings - bing does not return the same results as google; which says to me that there isn't any "copying" going on. Now, if you kept searching that same string at google over and over, and bing's results start looking more and more similar, that would make sense.

Now, if you try more common search strings (i.e. miserable failure, call of duty, terrorist attack, etc.) the results are similar . . . but yet, not 100% identicle. No, there's some differences there. Now go and try that same search string on lycos, yahoo, ask, or any other major search engine, and notice that the different results that bing returns are the same as what the other search engine returns. In that sense, bing is using user generated search queries and and the most commonly chosen results to flesh out it's own search results. Instead of only going with the most popular choices based on user selection at only their site, they're complimenting it with the most popular results on other engines. This would improve the return of the most relevant results for any given query.

I don't see it as cheating. I see it as a different solution to a problem.

Think of it like this: you have 5 friends that will give people directions to any location they want. Send them out randomly into the public. Say, for example, everyone asks the best way to get to the local library, and your friends give everyone 5 different routes to reach that destination.

Now, you go out and find those people who were given directions, and ask them where was it they wanted to go and what route did they choose to take, and collect those answers. Then you go out into the public, and people start asking you the same question for directions to the local library - instead of giving them your own answer first, you give them the most popular routes that other people had chosen, as they're more likely to choose one of those routes in the first place.

See what I'm trying to get at here?

 

[Danpascooch]

Well obviously they aren't just running Google under the hood at Bing, but they are using Google search queries to further their search engine, by collecting data on what Google returns to specific search queries.

Think about it, that result for that gibberish came DIRECTLY from Google (because they invented that term-result relationship) which means when Bing doesn't know something, it steals answers from Google.

Sounds like cheating to me.

You're mis-interpreting my post. What I'm trying to point out is that if bing is collecting the most popular results from other search engines via IE users and browser-bar users . . . bing will return those same results because the employees at google created them, and kept searching for them, and the results that search would return.

If you try other gibberish strings - bing does not return the same results as google; which says to me that there isn't any "copying" going on. Now, if you kept searching that same string at google over and over, and bing's results start looking more and more similar, that would make sense.

Now, if you try more common search strings (i.e. miserable failure, call of duty, terrorist attack, etc.) the results are similar . . . but yet, not 100% identicle. No, there's some differences there. Now go and try that same search string on lycos, yahoo, ask, or any other major search engine, and notice that the different results that bing returns are the same as what the other search engine returns. In that sense, bing is using user generated search queries] and and the most commonly chosen results to flesh out it's own search results. Instead of only going with the most popular choices based on user selection at only their site, they're complimenting it with the most popular results on other engines. This would improve the return of the most relevant results for any given query.

I don't see it as cheating. I see it as a different solution to a problem.

Think of it like this: you have 5 friends that will give people directions to any location they want. Send them out randomly into the public. Say, for example, everyone asks the best way to get to the local library, and your friends give everyone 5 different routes to reach that destination.

Now, you go out and find those people who were given directions, and ask them where was it they wanted to go and what route did they choose to take, and collect those answers. Then you go out into the public, and people start asking you the same question for directions to the local library - instead of giving them your own answer first, you give them the most popular routes that other people had chosen, as they're more likely to choose one of those routes in the first place.

See what I'm trying to get at here?

I get what you're saying, but to me it really boils down to the part I bolded above.

If they have similar terms, it should be because Bing knows what people want to search for based on its own algorithms, not because it looked at other search engines and "complimented" Bing results with them.

 

[Danpascooch]

SNIP

SNIP

one guy wants other people to confirm google's statement with their own independent investigations before making a judgment while the other guy claims the fan boy love.


You are on the internet. Instead of pounding on your chest and crying foul, you could easily prove google's statements. Start doing searches of nonsense words while doing searches in bing with nonsense words. Post your results here.

Thank you for posting this, go back about 5 posts in our little argument, you'll see I did EXACTLY WHAT YOU SUGGESTED.

He just won't accept anything, and changes his stance every 15 minutes to a different scenario in which Bing is right, it's really kind of sad.

 

[Baradiel]

I dont even use bing. Even when I'm using IE, I always go to google first. Its simply a better search engine imo.

 

[imperialreign]

I get what you're saying, but to me it really boils down to the part I bolded above.

If they have similar terms, it should be because Bing knows what people want to search for based on its own algorithms, not because it looked at other search engines and "complimented" Bing results with them.

I agree and understand with what you're saying as well - but part of the point I was trying to make above, also, is that bing does also return it's own results. It's more noticeable when presented with a random, uncommon string (not one that google used) . . . and compared to searching any other engine with the same string, there's little to no similarities between everyone's results.

TBH, I see it more as a means of improving the relevancy of search results . . . but, that's simply my opinion.

 

[Danpascooch]

I get what you're saying, but to me it really boils down to the part I bolded above.

If they have similar terms, it should be because Bing knows what people want to search for based on its own algorithms, not because it looked at other search engines and "complimented" Bing results with them.

I agree and understand with what you're saying as well - but part of the point I was trying to make above, also, is that bing does also return it's own results. It's more noticeable when presented with a random, uncommon string (not one that google used) . . . and compared to searching any other engine with the same string, there's little to no similarities between everyone's results.

TBH, I see it more as a means of improving the relevancy of search results . . . but, that's simply my opinion.

The point is that Bing peeked at Google's results.

Whether you think that's alright or not is an entirely different matter.

I think it's not, and you think it is. There is no way to prove eachother wrong because the only thing left to debate is that point, and it is purely a matter of personal opinion.

So yeah, since the point we diverge on is completely opinion based, I suggest we respect each others opinions, do a little bow or some shit as mutual respect, and call it a day.

 

[imperialreign]

I think it's not, and you think it is. There is no way to prove eachother wrong because the only thing left to debate is that point, and it is purely a matter of personal opinion.

So yeah, since the point we diverge on is completely opinion based, I suggest we respect each others opinions, do a little bow or some shit as mutual respect, and call it a day.

I can agree to that

 

[Danpascooch]

I think it's not, and you think it is. There is no way to prove eachother wrong because the only thing left to debate is that point, and it is purely a matter of personal opinion.

So yeah, since the point we diverge on is completely opinion based, I suggest we respect each others opinions, do a little bow or some shit as mutual respect, and call it a day.

I can agree to that

There we go.

wait, shit.