“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,” Danny Sullivan reports for Search Engine Land. “Bing doesn’t deny this.”
“As a result of the apparent monitoring, Bing’s relevancy is potentially improving (or getting worse) on the back of Google’s own work,” Sullivan reports. “Google likens it to the digital equivalent of Bing leaning over during an exam and copying off of Google’s test.”
“‘I’ve spent my career in pursuit of a good search engine,’ says Amit Singhal, a Google Fellow who oversees the search engine’s ranking algorithm,” Sullivan reports. “‘I’ve got no problem with a competitor developing an innovative algorithm. But copying is not innovation, in my book,’ Singhal said… ‘It’s cheating to me because we work incredibly hard and have done so for years but they just get there based on our hard work. I don’t know how else to call it but plain and simple cheating. Another analogy is that it’s like running a marathon and carrying someone else on your back, who jumps off just before the finish line.’”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Aw, you don’t like being ripped off by an inferior company, Google? Apple doesn’t either.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Dev” for the heads up.]