Bing: Powered by Google - Stolen Search Results

Breaking tech news today! It has been uncovered that Bing has been poaching Google search results! Here are the cliff notes:

• Bing will show the spellchecked search results from Google, without fixing the misspelling.
• Bing results have been suspiciously close to Google results for a long time, Google decided to create a sting operation.
• Google created non-sense words and results pages for those made-up jumbles of characters.
• Google tasked engineers to search for these words from home, using Internet Explorer with Suggested Sites enabled and the Bing toolbar installed.
• Soon after, these non-sense search results (Which had NOTHING to do with the term searched for) started popping up on Bing.
• 7 out of 9 tests give overwhelming evidence that Bing has been stealing search results from Google.

So what exactly does this mean for Bing? Microsoft is holding a search event later today (which is why Google could be unveiling this now), and Matt Cutts is on a panel with them later today, so I expect we will hear more then.

The original tweet is here: http://twitter.com/mattcutts/status/32459370511994880

Check out the very thorough and awesome analysis of the situation by Search Engine Land.

I think search is going to get very interesting over the next couple of weeks...

Didn't learn your lesson the first time, eh?

I wouldn't consider myself an Apple fanboy in any way, but one thing is for sure, they know how to make things simple for their customers. One thing that's always irked me about Microsoft's Windows line... Why all the different versions? Why do I (the consumer) need to choose between Windows 7 Starter, Basic, Home Basic, Pro Basic, Pro, Home Extended, Premium Pro Home, Home, Premium, and Premium Ultimate Home Pro Edition with Sprinkles?

Thanks to Gizmodo for the image

Ok... ok.. so I'm being a little ridiculous here... But even still.. I think I could work with two versions, three is pushing it.. but five?? Why do we need to choose from five different versions of the same product? When you buy Leopard 10.5 for the mac, you buy Leopard 10.5. There isn't a pro, basic, starter, or business edition. Its just Leopard. All of these different versions cause a bit of a headache with Windows XP, and somewhat of a migraine with Vista. What do you want to do with your computer? Take a look at this handy table full of terms consumers don't understand and some terms that only exist in our marketing textbooks!! No, Microsoft! This shit has to stop. People want to use their computers. People don't want to choose between 2, or 3, or 4, or hell.. 5 different versions of the exact same codebase. Its fucking stupid.

I've got an idea.. a brilliant idea. No tech company has ever, Ever done this before. Make a solid product (You've got me there, 7 is a fucking rock), make it shiny (7's got this one down too), then make it stupid easy to buy. How do you go about doing this? Put one version out, put it on every shelf. Don't even put out Upgrade packs and Full install packs. Throw it on one disk, put it on shelves, in schools, in the hands of celebrities (You can skip Seinfeld safely.. don't worry), and make people want it. You'll be the talk of the town! You'll be unique! You'll be pretty and everyone will love you! Oh wait... Apple did that already.

This post is in reply to:

http://i.gizmodo.com/5139306/evidence-of-five-windows-7-retail-versions-surprises-no-one