Google has accused Microsoft of copying its search results in Bing, having set a “honeypot” trap in December 2010 that spotted mirrored results on both networks for meaningless search terms. According to Search Engine Land, Microsoft has been using tracking tools to identify Google search results according to user queries, then tweak its own Bing results accordingly.
“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” Amit Singhal,Google
Google first noticed overlap when its spelling correction results seemed to be replicated in Bing searches, and then again when the similarities between the top ten results from both engines overlapped even more. To test more conclusively, Google set up 100 synthetic searches with staged results, and found that 7-9 subsequently turned up as Bing’s top results as well.
Both the Bing toolbar and the Suggested Searches feature in Internet Explorer have been highlighted as potential sources of tracking information, and it’s worth noting that both give users the choice to not send usage information back to Microsoft. For its part, Microsoft denies any wrongdoing, suggesting instead that it’s normal practice to use opt-in programs to better educate its systems.
“As you might imagine, we use multiple signals and approaches when we think about ranking, but like the rest of the players in this industry, we’re not going to go deep and detailed in how we do it. Clearly, the overarching goal is to do a better job determining the intent of the search, so we can guess at the best and most relevant answer to a given query.
Opt-in programs like the [Bing] toolbar help us with clickstream data, one of many input signals we and other search engines use to help rank sites. This “Google experiment” seems like a hack to confuse and manipulate some of these signals.” Stefan Weitz, director of search, Microsoft
Microsoft has been accused of “artificially propping up” Bing, with allegations that its much-vaunted Bing growth has in part been achieved by cannibalizing the MSN portal. According to the NYPost‘s sources, Microsoft is redirecting an increasing amount of MSN searches to Bing results pages, while headlines that lead to Bing on the MSN homepage have increased from 20- to 50-percent in the past quarter.
While both sites are Microsoft’s to do with as the company chooses, the decision to apparently prioritize Bing has led to fierce rivalry between the MSN and Bing ad sales teams, and between them and head office. According to insiders, “it’s warfare between the ad sales folks and the people at Microsoft headquarters in Redmond” since by redirecting MSN searches to Bing results pages, it’s Bing that gets you show targeted adverts.
Microsoft claims that the redirects are part of their normal tweaking, and that the company is “constantly making different bets to see how things play out. We’re doing programs that go from MSN to Bing. We’re experimenting with new landing pages.” CEO Steve Ballmer told USA Today recently that “We bet on Bing and are growing like a weed in that business,” though it seems that may have been at the expense of other specimens in Microsoft’s garden.
To be “bigger than Google” in the tech world is a pretty big feat. But for Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, it’s something that he can officially mark off of his “to-do” list, if he’s got one. According to Hitwise, a traffic analyst firm, the social networking site has officially surpassed the search giant as the most visited website in 2010, and by a pretty significant margin, no less. These numbers, though, reflect traffic based in the United States only, though.
Hitwise has reported that Facebook accounted for a total of 8.93 percent of all Web visits in the United States, between the months of January and November. Google on the other hand, which is still ranked high on the chart at number 2, obviously, managed to nab “only” 7.19 percent of the US’ total Web visits between the same period. There’s a few honorable mentions to go around, though.
For one, Yahoo! took two spots on the rankings, with Yahoo! Mail grabbing the number three spot. Yahoo!’s main search engine snatch the fourth spot. And finally, happy to have a spot in the top 10 (we’re sure), is Microsoft’s decision engine, Bing. After winning Person of the Year, and now this, Zuckerberg certainly has quite a bit to celebrate going into 2011.
You can read the full press release below for more information, including more details about most searched-about products and people.
Press Release
New York, N.Y., Dec. 29, 2010 – Experian® Hitwise®, a part of Experian Marketing Services, has analyzed the top 1000 search terms for 20101 and Facebook was the top-searched term overall. This is the second year that the social networking website has been the top search term overall, accounting for 2.11 percent of all searches.1 Four variations of the term “facebook” were among the top 10 terms and accounted for 3.48 percent of searches overall.
The term “facebook login” moved up from the 9th spot in 2009 to the second spot in 2010. YouTube was the third most-searched term in 2010, followed by craigslist, myspace and facebook.com. Analysis of the search terms revealed that social networking-related terms dominated the results, accounting for 4.18 percent of the top 50 searches.
When combined, common search terms – e.g., facebook and facebook.com – for Facebook accounted for 3.48 percent of all searches in the US among the top 50 terms, which represents a 207 percent increase versus 2009. YouTube terms accounted for 1.12 percent, representing a 106 percent increase versus 2009. Aol search terms accounted for 0.34 percent of searches in 2010, but grew 22 percent versus 2009. Google terms accounted for 0.63 percent, and Craigslist terms accounted for 0.62 percent.
New terms that entered into the top 50 search terms for 2010 included – netflix, verizon wireless, espn, chase, pogo, tagged, wells fargo, yellow pages, poptropica, games and hulu.
Top-visited Websites in 2010
Facebook was the top-visited Website for the first time and accounted for 8.93 percent of all U.S. visits between January and November 2010. Google.com ranked second with 7.19 percent of visits, followed by Yahoo! Mail (3.52 percent), Yahoo! (3.30 percent) and YouTube (2.65 percent).
The combination of Google properties accounted for 9.85 percent of all U.S. visits. Facebook properties accounted for 8.93 percent, and Yahoo! properties accounted for 8.12 percent. The top 10 Websites accounted for 33 percent of all U.S. visits between January and November 2010, an increase of 12 percent versus 2009.
Other top searches from various categories include:
Personality – top 5 people searches
1. Kim Kardashian
2. Oprah
3. Rush Limbaugh
4. Miley Cyrus
5. Glenn Beck
Movie Titles – top 5 searches from within Movies category:
1. Star Wars
2. Paranormal Activity 2
3. Avatar
4. Transformers 3
5. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallow
Music – top 5 searched for artists/bands:
1. Lady Gaga
2. Justin Beiber
3. Eminem
4. Taylor Swift
5. Michael Jackson
Branded Destinations top 5 search terms:
1. Disney World
2. Disneyland
3. Six Flags
4. Universal Studios Orlando
5. Great Wolf Lodg
Top TV show searches from Television category
1. Dancing with the Stars
2. American Idol
3. Young and the Restless
The top generic search term was “hulu” within Television category
Sports – the top searched for athlete was Tiger Woods and the top sports team was the Dallas Cowboys from within the Sports category.
News and Media – the top searched for person was Bret Michaels followed by Tiger Woods and Sandra Bullock within the News and Media category in 2010.
Microsoft has given its Bing search engine a significant refresh, introducing new social networking features including Facebook integration, “device intelligence” which automatically shapes the search results based on the type of device you’re browsing from, and a new version, Bing 2.0, for iOS devices [iTunes link]. The company has also come up with a new UI for Bing image searches, with a new set of sub-tabs for better filtering through different pictures.
It’s the mobile version which has seen perhaps the most changes, however, though bizarrely the new apps support Android and iOS but nothing for Windows Phone 7. Bing 2.0 for Apple devices gets a new UI, streamlined auto-suggestions (with restaurant booking integrated in-app with OpenTable or takeout from Grubhub), Bing Streetside (a new multi-street level panorama of a location for virtual walks through the streets complete with an overlay of business listings, street names and store fronts) and Facebook/Foursquare/Live Messenger location-based check-ins.
There are also location-based reminders – such as prompts to pick up dry-cleaning when Bing spots you’re near the store – and real-time transit updates for Boston, San Francisco and Seattle. Finally, there are non-text search options, including speech recognition and “Bing Vision” to search CDs, books and other content via photos from the iOS device’s camera.
Microsoft just released — or should we say, Apple just approved — version 2.0 of the Bing search app for iOS devices. In addition to several other new features including integrated Facebook Likes on search results (really!?) and in-app checkins to Facebook and Foursquare, Bing now comes packing Streetside, something that first blew us away as Street Slide when it was still in the labs at Microsoft Research. Unlike Google’s Streetview that requires a lot of forward- and back-clicking and turning in order to get a feel for a location, Streetslide provides a more comprehensive view of the shops and businesses in an area by letting you strafe down the sidewalk while zooming in and out of the buildings located on each side of the street. We took it for a brief spin (literally) and came away impressed. You won’t find Streetside implemented for all locations yet (for example, San Francisco’s Make-out Room was found on Streetside but the Slanted Door restaurant wasn’t) but they do seem to have large swaths of major cities covered based on our brief testing of Chicago, Seattle, New York, and San Francisco. Sorry, nothing yet in London and Amsterdam but maybe you’ll have better success searching your own neighborhoods. See the full list of what’s new after the break in addition to a Streetside demo from Bing’s architect Blaise Aguera y Arcas — unfortunately, we’re not seeing the impressive Panaroma feature he mentions in this release.
Update: We’ve been told that Facebook Likes, like Panaroma, like totally didn’t make it into the app release. It’s a web search results feature only for the time being.
Far be it from us to tell Verizon how to do a product launch, but showing off a 360-degree view of the HTC Merge before the phone’s even been announced doesn’t seem like the soundest strategy to us. Of course, we doubt anyone intended for this Flash module to have become public knowledge like it has, but sure enough, a forum member over at Android Central spotted it among VZW’s web properties and now we can all take a multidimensional look at this upcoming Android handset. Yes, that includes seeing it with its sliding QWERTY keyboard open — you can find more imagery of that after the break — though the pivotal questions of when, for how much, and “can you disable Bing?” remain unanswered for the time being. Ah well, let’s just enjoy the eye candy.
It’s not exactly the Optimus T / S we saw hit T-Mobile and Sprint, respectively, but for all intents and purposes, it’s a fraternal twin. The LG Vortex for Verizon brings with it Android 2.2, a 3.2-inch touchscreen, 3G Mobile HotSpot capability, Skype, Swype, a suite of pre-installed carrier / manufacturer apps (e.g. VZ Navigator), and as you might’ve guessed from it being a non-Droid Verizon Android phone, Bing Search and Bing Maps. Despite being a later arrival, this one’s actually the most expensive of the three — $80 on contract after $100 mail-in rebate. November 18th, if you want to mark a calendar.
Bing not meeting your needs? Don’t fret, Google just pushed its Google Search app for Windows Phone 7 live in Marketplace. A move the mirrors the Bing app availability on the Android Market. The Google Search app utilizes your location to provide local search results and features suggestions as your type and a search history to quickly repeat any previous queries. While there’s no way to reassign Google Search to the dedicated search “button” on WP7 devices, you could always pin the app to the Start screen. Unfortunately, we’re still not seeing it populated in the UK Marketplace (search for “Google Search”) but that should be remedied anytime now.
Thought the Optimus S was a good deal at $50 on contract? Or the Optimus T at $30? Well, Verizon’s got its own version of the LG Android device in the wings — the rumored (and now official) Vortex — and they’ll be charging a big fat zero for it. Well, that’s not quite true — you’ll need to pay $100 upfront, it seems, then get mailed a $100 debit card, but at the end of the day you’re no better or worse financially than when you started. Of course, the big downside with this one is that it’s expected to feature Bing in place of Google services, but if you can tolerate that, this could be a good way to get Android-ified on Big Red’s airwaves for minimal cost.
[Thanks, Devon]
Update: Though you’re paying $30 still for the fancy burgundy shade, it seems T-Mobile’s running a special where you can get the black version for free — which makes it an obvious choice over the considerably lower-end Comet.
Thought the Optimus S was a good deal at $50 on contract? Or the Optimus T at $30? Well, Verizon’s got its own version of the LG Android device in the wings — the rumored (and now official) Vortex — and they’ll be charging a big fat zero for it. Well, that’s not quite true — you’ll need to pay $100 upfront, it seems, then get mailed a $100 debit card, but at the end of the day you’re no better or worse financially than when you started. Of course, the big downside with this one is that it’s expected to feature Bing in place of Google services, but if you can tolerate that, this could be a good way to get Android-ified on Big Red’s airwaves for minimal cost.
[Thanks, Devon]
Update: Though you’re paying $30 still for the fancy burgundy shade, it seems T-Mobile’s running a special where you can get the black version for free — which makes it an obvious choice over the considerably lower-end Comet.
