Handbags at dawn.
Nothing like a good ol' hissyfit to brighten up my week.
We haven't seen a catfight like this since Linda Evans and Joan Collins. Or maybe even Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. Google flaming Microsoft for copying its search results was already great fun. But the two have now descended into the sort of endless slagging match typically reserved for insecure adolescents – or Register …
I honestly don't see the huge fuss in what MS is doing. Well, from a privacy perspective perhaps, but what's new.
Think about it: MS has a browser toolbar that watches what pages people look at. As part of the Google 'sting', MS sees the following:
1. User searches for term X on a search engine (could be any of them)
2. User clicks on link Y, presumably because it matches their search.
3. Bings marks this URL and search term accordingly.
What's the problem? Seems like a great algorithm to me- you're getting real, live data from genuine users. Apart from when Google has launched an operation against you, of course.
If you think Google isn't doing the same kind of tracking you're deluded. Just seems like MS is making better use of the data.
Leveraging your dominance in the browser market to increase your dominance in the search market would be a bit like leveraging your dominance in the operating system market to increase your dominance in the browser market. I.E. Illegal and anticompetitive.
That said, the mud wrestling / article was amusing.
"What's the problem? Seems like a great algorithm to me- you're getting real, live data from genuine users. Apart from when Google has launched an operation against you, of course."
No you're not, you're getting real, live data from your biggest competitor. This isn't the users' data, this is Googles data.
But then Microsoft has been copying everything else in the industry for twenty years, this isn't exactly surprising.
"If you think Google isn't doing the same kind of tracking you're deluded. Just seems like MS is making better use of the data."
There's that word again, deluded. So which of their competitors do you think Google are copying?
"No you're not, you're getting real, live data from your biggest competitor. This isn't the users' data, this is Googles data."
But it isn't. It's data about what end users are doing, no matter while site they are on. Yes, that data includes information from Google, but it isn't as sinister as directly copying from them, it's a side effect of Google's market dominance.
"But then Microsoft has been copying everything else in the industry for twenty years, this isn't exactly surprising."
Welcome to the world of business.
"There's that word again, deluded. So which of their competitors do you think Google are copying?"
The way they copied the Bing image search UI, you mean? I'm not criticising them. Like I said, this is the world of business, where everyone copies anything worth having if they can get away with it. As an end user, I benefit. Google isn't exactly a benevolent god either, why should I defend them?
Can you be sure that it is just recording search data?
What if a website does not want its pages known to search engines? With Microsofts browsers sending details back about what pages you view, they are basically indexing pages that may not want to be indexed!
What if I am on a private Government website, or just a private website? Is it sending details back?
Is it actually sending text queries back as well? Can you be sure that it is not loggin passwords etc?
Google should just work on removing those spam results from their searches instead of whining about a competitor "stealing" their results. You can opt out or in of the toolbar and other programs. I'm pretyy sure that Microsoft steal other searchengines results also and not just Googles.
...that I am not the only one who thought this of we commentards.
Insecure adolescents, no matter what chronological age, sums up the usual lot that comments on a piece in El Reg in some ham handed attempt to vaingloriously impart wisdom to the author and their fellow commentard's prodigious spleens.
<spleen venting icon, please>
Were nearly better than the article for amusement's sake. That said, I have two questions. Which was MS and which was Googlehead in the short...
And why not use Copernic? It's tracked anyway (something in TOS and EULA on most sites and browsers will tell ya anyway), but it works at least as well. Tad more accessible too. And also free.
Glenn