Posts Tagged ‘google’

SearchEngineLand‘s Danny Sullivan has just relayed breaking news that Google has proof that Microsoft is stealing search results from Google and placing them in Bing results. This is big news, considering that with Yahoo’s announcement that it will display Bing results, “we’ve never had so few search voices as we do now.”

Google suspected Bing was stealing their search results for certain queries from Internet Explorer users with the Bing toolbar installed, so Google engineers created a series of “tests” which mapped a hundred or so random query strings (like ‘hiybbprqag‘) to a random search result set, and then visited those pages at Google from home computers using Internet Explorer with the Bing toolbar installed.

Here’s an example, which is still working as I write this, hiybbprqag at Google:

and the same exact match at Bing:

The results amazed them, yielding 7 to 9 exact matches over at Bing within a few days. Microsoft has not confirmed or denied anything yet, but answers will surely soon follow.

Mr. Sullivan does not seem to think this conduct is illegal, but in such a concentrated and sophisticated market, anticompetitive conduct often carries great risk with it. Although Microsoft is probably only “tuning” their results by looking at Google’s, Microsoft is nonetheless piggybacking off of the search giant, and definitely without Google’s consent.

Lots of useful information in here. I learned things about why 301s are the best way to redirect users from non-www to www or vice versa, how to create a video sitemap, and that Google has a whole bunch of webmaster tools to help analyze every aspect of your web site and it’s search engine visibility.

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The three internet giants Microsoft, Yahoo, and Google are joining together by agreeing to a common set of principles concerning conducting business with nations that restrict free speech and expression. They are basically trying to protect people’s information overseas with oppressive governments. I was interested to learn that the Human Rights First and Committee to Protect Journalists and nonprofits the Center for Democracy and Technology and Business for Social Responsibility took part in the formation of this humbly crafted entity known as the Global Network Initiative. What I found troubling was the lack of specific implications and obligations pertaining to these companies. Some other points of interest are the restrictions on citizenship and how that plays into this decision making. I would also like to hear the CCIPS chime in.

At least one human rights organization that didn’t sign onto the plan said it doesn’t go far enough. “More serious questions have to be asked about these company’s legal obligations,” said Morton Sklar, executive director of the World Organization for Human Rights USA. For instance, he said he would have liked the document to address whether Internet companies are violating U.S. or international laws by complying with requests from certain governments.

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