Google declares war publicly on Bing, Microsoft smirks
You have probably seen the article about Google calling out Bing. Danny Sullivan wrote it up on Search engine land and Matt Cutts contributed to the article. Roughly, Google claims that Bing copies their search results. And to prove that Bing copies their search results, Google ran a honeypot scheme to try to catch them in the act. While we can argue the case of who is really copying who, lets address something else. For several months it has been widely known that Google and Microsoft have been making jabs at each other with subtle means. A tweet here, a blog reference there and a couple words at [insert conference here]. Finally this drama has spilled out on the internet. Google couldn't take it any longer and has spilled the tech world drama in front of the public.
Plus, Google has Matt Cutts (the #1 Google fanboy) fanning the flames by getting SEOs involved that weren't already with Danny's article. In a recent blog post with his 20% of "free time" that Google allows their employees he says to start off:
First off, let me say that I respect all the people at Bing. From engineers to evangelists, everyone that I’ve met from Microsoft has been thoughtful and sincere, and I truly believe they want to make a great search engine too. I know that they work really hard, and the last thing I would want to do is imply that Bing is purely piggybacking Google. I don’t believe that.
That said, I didn’t expect that Microsoft would deny the claims so strongly. Yusuf Mehdi’s post says “We do not copy results from any of our competitors. Period. Full stop.”
Matt is contradicting himself. What did he expect? Did he expect Microsoft to raise their hands up and admit that they copy or piggyback off Google's search results? They would not dare do that. In fact, they did what any reasonable company would do. Flat out deny it.
Google, which has a much bigger brand worldwide compared to Bing, has given Microsoft a huge advantage now. The amount of media attention the debate has gotten has been astronomical. Plus, at no charge to Microsoft and thanks to Google, Bing is now a common household word. Google's marketing and PR department should be taken outside and shot (English humor). Why give more attention to Bing?
Do you know what else this tells us about Google? Google feels threatened. A blog post entitled Blog Fight rules of engagement from Michael Arrington can apply here. One of the main rules when entering into battle is not to argue with a smaller blog, or in this case company. I completely agree with those rules. Google is huge compared to little ole Bing--the search engine. But by pointing fingers at Bing, Google has now boosted Microsoft's brand. The problem with pointer fingers is you not only draw attention to yourself but also to the one you are accusing.
Microsoft is smirking right now. Not because Google thinks they copy their results. But because for the first time ever, Google views Microsoft as a threat. Not just any threat. A threat in the search engine world that is dominated by Google and Google has now validated that Bing is a legitimate competitor.