Microsoft has admitted to having directly copied search results from Google to improve their Bing search.

Google has run a sting operation that it says proves Bing has been watching what people search for on Google, the sites they select from Google’s results, then uses that information to improve Bing’s own search listings. Bing doesn’t deny this.

When Bing launched in 2009, the joke was that Bing stood for either “Because It’s Not Google” or “But It’s Not Google.” Mining Google’s searches makes me wonder if the joke should change to “Bing Is Now Google.” I think Bing should develop its own search voice without using Google’s as a tuning fork. That just doesn’t ring true to me.

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Microsoft has admitted to having directly copied search results from Google to improve their Bing search. Google has run a sting operation that it says proves Bing has been watching what people search for on Google, the sites they select from Google’s results, then uses that information to improve Bing’s own search listings. Bing doesn’t ...