back to article Microsoft conceals job ad in Bing homepage

Microsoft are looking for a new Bing developer - but you'll need to be pretty smart to apply. Oh, and you can only use Internet Explorer, which rules a fair number of applicants out. Visitors to the Bing homepage are currently greeted with a weird blue environment of some sort as the background to the search bar. But rich …

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      1. Tom 38

        Re: I may add...

        fairly silly remark, not sure what land you live in but i've worked with many talented developers who only use IE

        Me too. Well, at first they only used IE anyway. Then they come to me with questions - "How do I see the request and response headers?", "How do I choose a different proxy based upon destination website?", "How do I single step my javascript code?", "What does 'Object expected' mean?"

        It may be different now, IE actually has some developer tools to speak of, but anyone developing websites in the past 5 years ago who wasn't doing most of their work in Firefox or (eventually) Chrome was totally wasting their time, since the debug features just aren't there.

        Even now, for doing certain debug tasks in IE you are better off using Fiddler, rather than the simplicity of chrome's approach.

        1. Duncan 4

          Re: I may add...

          hit f12 in it and you can debug javascript add breakpoints etc etc as browser debugging goes it's pretty dam good, i've used firebug in the past which is also pretty awesome too since things got soo much better in ie i don't feel the need often anymore. recomened a try if you havent recently.

      2. darklordsid
        Mushroom

        Re: I may add...

        20 years of crappy software cannot be forgotten in 3 years of Windows 7 - and by the way with 8 they are attracting more and more laughter.

      3. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        @Duncan 4

        Try sending your CV in then.

        Uncorrected, mind.

        1. Duncan 4

          Re: @Duncan 4

          if a prerequisit for a job was that i did use bing or IE i wouldn't apply and if in an interview that came i i would take the job either lol luckily for me thats never happend or anyone i've ever know.

          Imagine if it did tho and i lied and then one day someone spotted me ! actually using IE!!! breach of contract... door ! lucky no companies like that actually exist in the realy world and if they did i wouldn't be offering my services...

          Next time you have an interview i suggest mentioning your strong feeling about IE and Bing they might be impressed and give you the job, but i doubt it!

          Imaging a boss like that no ie, no bing, blue pants only on a friday, no employees with the initials MS! right this has got silly enough i'm off... back to WORK, my register session is done for another few months, articles and comments are getting worse every time i come here! suggest you lot go back to playing war hammer or something which the rest of the world gets on with something that might very well include IE and Bing and might not :D

          1. Jamie Jones Silver badge
            Headmaster

            Re: @Duncan 4

            Yes, go away for a few months, and work on your spelling and grammar.

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    So here is the question-

    How many people running IE feel the need to debug the bing website?

    1. Kubla Cant
      Windows

      Re: So here is the question-

      My recollection is that if you have the debugger enabled in IE, it offers to debug any site with errors (maybe that's just script errors).

      This is especially annoying, as few sites are completely error-free. If you're working on cross-browser pages, especially if you're targeting earlier versions of IE, then you'll certainly have the IE debugger enabled because IE is where your bugs will be.

      A good approximation to hell is trying to debug client script on IE6 using its so-called debugger. It generally terminates with a stack dump on good days, or a BSOD on bad ones.

  2. David Pollard

    Northcote Parkinson

    Parkinson's Law, and Other Studies in Administration (first published in 1957) is the source of this recruitment technique.

    If an advertisement for a vacancy describes the work as easy and well-paid, then there will be lots of applicants. The selection process will thus be expensive and time consuming. On the other hand, if the job description makes the work sound too arduous then no one will reply, and the advert will have to be run a second time.

    It looks as though someone in Microsoft management has come close to achieving Parkinson's optimum. The ideal advert recruits a single applicant who is just right for the job.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Northcote Parkinson

      Nope. This advert just screens out anyone who's any good, by virtue of the medium. It's like advertising for restaurant staff on toilet paper.

      1. David Pollard

        Re: Northcote Parkinson - @AC 10:34

        Why do you assume that I was being complementary? Not everyone is as brash as Eadon, you know.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    And they wonder why Google is dominant.

    "On Bing Homepage team you’ll be responsible for developing and shipping experiences on Bing.com homepage"

    It's a search engine page which users use to find other sites to visit. Users don't want it to be an "experience", they want it to be quick, clean and to the point. There's nothing wrong with offering users other options on that page, just do it discretely, so you don't fuck up the whole point of the page.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: And they wonder why Google is dominant.

      Indeed - every time I decide to use bing, just for a change, I immediately find their choice of "striking" background image rather too annoying ... so back to the other place it is.

  4. Senior Ugli
    Gimp

    The only time I use IE "developer" tools, is when im fixing sites in the piece of shit that IE is

    Also IE adverts can fuck off too.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      lol

      do you shout at the screen like a football fan when the ref or commentator says something you don't like? NO NO ! it's just not the most secure i know it! ARRRRGH, i hate my life! then mum calls you down for dinner... whats up son?

      1. hplasm
        Windows

        Re: lol

        Why, is that what happens to you just as you are about to Bing! ?

      2. Senior Ugli

        Re: lol

        dunno about your personal life but I dont like IE adverts because

        a - it appeals to the type of average backwards Jeremy Kyle watching humanoid that uses facebook, and will believe that IE is actually more secure and faster than the other leading browsers out there

        b - they choose some terrible trendy shit dubstep song that appeals to persons referenced in point a, and the advert is on way too much.

  5. Duncan 4

    i know you are but what am i?

    sorry couldn't resist :D

  6. ecofeco Silver badge
    Windows

    RDM?

    We have a rapid development model

    Oh HELL no!

  7. Will Godfrey Silver badge
    Happy

    I feel confident they will get exactly the person they deserve.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Dilbert's team meeting

    Pointy-haired boss: We need to recruit a new Bing Experience developer. Any suggestions on how to get a good one?

    Wally: We could embed a link to an advert in the search page source so that only someone running it in developer mode will see the advert

    PHB: (Thinking to himself later): But IE is perfect and has no bugs - why would anyone be running it in debug mode? In fact, why do we even have a developer mode?

    1. Havin_it
      Windows

      Re: Dilbert's team meeting

      PHB(cont'd): ...in fact, why do we even need developers?

      Apart from that, I don't buy Wally trying to be helpful. Never seen it.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I'm not sure but I think it's Firefox add-ons which get used by Web devs. Firefox itself comes with no dev tools I guess. Chrome, IE10 has.

    1. Havin_it
      FAIL

      Ill-informed. Firefox has had extensive dev tools built-in for some time now. It also had a DOM inspector long before any competing browser offered anything similar.

      That said, I rather dislike this development, as dev addons like Firebug were a better approach IMHO. Why should these things be built into the browser when a vanishingly small proportion of users will ever need them? It smacks of "me too"-ism and frankly is a bit of a diss to the community behind Firebug and its many daughter add-ons (there are some other great dev addons too, the venerable Web Developer deserves a mention for one).

  10. snowweb

    The only time I ever end up on Bing's page or using IE, is when installing a new Window's OS; between doing that and the post-install operation of installing a proper browser & anit-virus for the user. Although, I have to admit, I haven't installed Windows on a PC since 2011 and don't intend to ever do so again.

    I notice on my webserver stats for my website specific to the Philippines, that Google Chrome has 53% of the market share in the Philippines with Firefox at 25.4%, IE at just 14%.and Safari at 5.1%.

    Based on 4,171 unique visitors in April and the site is concerning Online Bookkeeping Services.

  11. Havin_it
    Trollface

    I guess the new hire's first job will be

    fixing that unmatched closing tag ;)

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