Eye on Microsoft
About this Blog:
This is Shane O'Neill's blog about Microsoft's corporate strategy and its various software and services — the good, the bad and the ugly.
Bing Search Tainted by Pro-Microsoft Results
Updated: Just as Bing is gaining popularity, some pro-Microsoft and anti-Apple search results rear their ugly heads.
Oh Microsoft, just when we were starting to believe in this thing called Bing, you go messing with the search results.
Case in point: a search on Bing for the phrase, "Why is Windows so expensive?" returned this as the top link....
"Why are Macs so expensive."
That's right. You're not hallucinating. That was the top response on Bing to a question about the price of Windows.
 |
But it's not just the top link. The rest of the links on the first search page don't get much better. There is one link about the price of vinyl windows (actual windows that you look out), one on why Windows hosting providers are so expensive, and one about fish. The five other links on page one are about the expensive price of Macs. The Windows client OS is not even mentioned.
If Microsoft is going to resort to blocking and self-protection with their search engine, they could at least be subtle. This is about as subtle as a machine gun.
Type in the same phrase over at Google, and Google does its job: returns a long list of links about whether the Windows OS is expensive (though the link about vinyl windows was on Google too. Apparently, vinyl windows are all the rage).
There is evidence that Microsoft is aware of the Bing results shenanigans and has made adjustments. An article written two weeks ago on an Internet marketing site called out Bing for censoring search results. The article highlighted two phrases — "Why is Microsoft Word so expensive?" and "Is Microsoft Evil?" — that were bringing up censored results.
The first of the search results about the Microsoft Word question linked to a page about how expensive Manhattan is (Is Microsoft competing with Manhattan now?). The top responses to the "Is Microsoft Evil?" question were, get this, a link to a New York Times story about whether or not Google is considered evil, a link about proxy servers, and a link to a story about Microsoft being charitable. Wow.
But those results have magically changed. As of today (August 5) search results for these phrases actually seem uncensored. The random Manhattan link is still there, but it's under three links about Microsoft Word. Not that the links are actually helpful, but open-ended questions are difficult in search engines. As for the "Is Microsoft Evil?" search, the Google story is now gone and all the current search results address the question at hand: "Is Microsoft Evil?"
Is Bing evil? Not yet. So far, I like its organized interface, but I'm finding its search results to be sloppy. Sloppy is one thing, but sloppy and censored? That's when evil starts lurking. Keep it fair, Microsoft.
Monitor Bing yourself at this site that allows you to search on both Bing and Google simultaneously.
Update: In response to this story, a Microsoft spokesperson issued the following statement:
"The ranking of Bing's results is done in an automated manner through algorithms, which can sometimes lead to unexpected results. Microsoft works to maintain the integrity of the results to ensure that they are not editorialized; results come from the algorithms, not from humans.
For example, if a site contains certain characters, words or phrases, that site may rank higher in a query for
Previous Post: Windows 7: Advice from an Early AdopterNext Post: Google Apps Face Long Road Against MS Office in the Enterprise
Most Discussed Posts
Cloud computing has emerged as one of the most significant game changers to hit the technology landscape in the past 20 years. With this massive expansion of the cloud, the perception of the IT organization is shifting from a utility player to a change agent. This eBook breaks down five ways progressive organizations are using cloud-based IT Management solutions to help drive innovation and become more strategic, including: adding visibility and analytics, speeding up time-to-value, lowering costs, improving prioritization, and providing a blueprint for future cloud deployments.
Read the white paper to see how IBM helped Citigroup deliver new services and enhancements to their 200 million customers faster.
There are 3 ways to modernize legacy applications: rewrite completely, acquire packaged solutions or migrate existing code. This paper explains why it's best to migrate and how IBM® Rational® software can help.
Accommodating specific lines of business can result in a hybrid ecosystem of applications and servers. The resulting complexity of this architecture makes for an environment that is costly to maintain and difficult to change when addressing new challenges.
This whitepaper will help you to define a mobile device passcode policy. Security managers must attempt to reconcile two opposing goals. They must: 1) create a passcode policy that is strong enough to protect the device if it is lost or stolen, while: 2) not annoying users with needless length or complexity.
This whitepaper, authored by The Radicati Group, looks at the key reasons organizations should consider moving to a cloud-based archiving solution. Email archiving solutions enable organizations to store, monitor, and collect electronic data exchanged by their users to comply with internal policies and regulations.
ATERNITY will showcase a 30-minute demo on how Fortune 500 companies are leveraging its award-winning FPI Platform to deliver a user-centric approach to Proactive IT Management.
For businesses to move forward and tap into the ever-expanding universe of Internet users and network-enabled devices, it's critical to learn how to make the transition to IPv6. Learn the critical steps your organization must take to make a seamless transition-and keep your business world connected.
Learn how IT teams can protect against spear phishing tactics. Harry Sverdlove, chief technology officer of Bit9 offers a frank discussion about spear phishing - the most common technique used in today's advanced attacks.
Learn how to build a solid business case for your migration to Red Hat Enterprise Linux so you can run leaner, innovate faster, be more flexible and own the New Now.
Social media isn't about you; it's about everything around you. As you consider how your customers want to communicate with you, social media is something that can't be ignored. But what should your strategy be? Is social media "just another channel?" What kind of a plan makes sense for your contact center and for your customers? Join our experts as they share their insight and research results.
Hardware tokens were a popular method of strong authentication in past years but the cumbersome provisioning and distribution tasks, high support requirements and replacement costs have limited their growth. The additional log-in steps that hardware tokens require and the resulting user frustrations have limited adoption and make them impractical for larger scale partner and customer applications.
Sponsored Links
