Bing Search Tainted By Pro-Microsoft Results 582
bdcny7927 writes "Just as Bing is gaining popularity, some disturbingly pro-Microsoft and anti-Apple search results are rearing their ugly heads. 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."
I lolled. (Score:2, Interesting)
Mod entire article down (Score:2, Interesting)
Is there a way to mod the entire article down? That would be a useful feature.
NLP is dead. Long live NLP. (Score:1, Interesting)
Why do people insist on typing search terms such as "Why is Windows so expensive?" into Internet search engines?
"Ask Jeeves" is dead. Long dead. Are these searches the deceased valet's legacy, somehow persisting like the grinning teeth of a decayed corpse?
Or is there some language instinct in people that can't quite be eradicated, even though a more sensible search would yield much better results?
Re:And? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:And? (Score:5, Interesting)
Surprised it took them this long, perhaps.
Microsoft always do this with search engines. They seem to start from the assumption that any query represents a user problem, for which there exists a Microsoft based solution. Looked at that way, a search engine becomes an exercise in derailing the users interest, and redirecting into more profitable channels.
It never seems to occur to them that people might be genuinely interested in results that reflect what they actually want.
And then they wonder why all their search engines fail.
Re:And? (Score:5, Interesting)
Some other interesting results... (Score:2, Interesting)
'windows worse than osx' returned top results on how OSX is worse than Window$.
'windows worse than linux' returned a similar 'pro Window$' result.
'windows more vulnerable than linux' did the same
It is fairly blatently pro-M$ in M$ vs. OSx vs. Linux type searches.
Anyone surprised?
Re:query "why windows sucks" (Score:4, Interesting)
Nothing New (Score:2, Interesting)
Dumb article .... all FUD! (Score:2, Interesting)
Why does windows Suck? => Windows and microsoft results, no macs in sight
Why is windows insecure? => Windows and Microsoft results, no macs in sight.
Put quotes around the question, i.e. "Why is windows so expensive?", and Bing only returns Windows results. But looking at these results, they are not big hitter sites. I am no big Windows fan (using Linux anytime I have a choice) but I just don't think there is that much discussion about how expensive Windows is out there. The expense of Macs is always discussed.
Check out the Google fights if you don't believe me:
http://www.googlefight.com/index.php?lang=en_GB&word1=%22Why+is+windows+so+expensive%22&word2=%22Why+are+macs+so+expensive%22 [googlefight.com]
I don't know what algorithm is used to rank results by Bing, but it doesn't seem to be pro Windows in general, only with that particular search.
Nothing to see here, move along....
Re:And? (Score:3, Interesting)
Keep in mind that any loss of profit from Bing can go directly against the company's profit as a whole, as well as the entire cost of Bing being applied to Microsoft's advertising budget. For Microsoft, it's a win-win scenario. It's just The Next Step in its advertising campaign to maintain its market dominance.
Or, more likely, given the present 'economic climate', that the economic viability and survival is more important than giving the consumers EVERYTHING they want. Keep in mind that Google is based on selling advertising, Microsoft is selling their own technology. Advertising a 'competing service' doesn't hurt Google much, they still get the page views. For Microsoft to advertise their competition, it's financial suicide, and liable to directly hurt them, sparking a possible stockholder's revolt.
Re:And? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:yeah, but.... (Score:2, Interesting)
Now put this into google and don't hit enter, just watch what appears in the search suggestion dropdown:
can a human get
Re:And? (Score:5, Interesting)
And even funnier - search for "Why is Microsoft Windows so expensive?" [bing.com] and the fifth result is a slashdot article entitled: "Why is OSS Commercial Software So Expensive?"!
Try this : why are macs so awesome?
Top 2:
ALL RESULTS
1-9 of 1,370,000 resultsÂ
1) Why Macs Suck - Funny videos
2) Why are Macs so crap at gaming?
Re:And? (Score:1, Interesting)
I once heard of a guy (Unix admin) who took a mcse 4 exam cold (old tale, obviously). No prep course, no prep test, nothing. For every question, he looked at the answers, and asked himself one question - which answer will make Microsoft the most money? Used that as the answer.
He passed.
Re:And? (Score:4, Interesting)
Well, but I had an interesting accident.
I accidentally double clicked my middle mouse button, and searched for: Why is Windows so eWhy is Windows so expensive?xpensive?
I got the "Why are Macs so expensive" as the second result.
Probably that just means that Google is smarter than Bing. When you ask it right, with an English sentence, they know that result is irrelevant. When you ask the same with a bunch of keywords mixed with garbage, they don't filter, and give you that result.
I wouldn't attribute _that_ to malice.
Don't get me wrong, I know MS does all the awful things they can in order to market their stuff, and that their astroturfing might kill sites like this. Just in this case, I think it's just an example of Google being better than Bing, and not result doctoring. It's too easy to spot to be intentional.
Re:And? (Score:3, Interesting)
Microsoft always do this with search engines. They seem to start from the assumption that any query represents a user problem, for which there exists a Microsoft based solution. Looked at that way, a search engine becomes an exercise in derailing the users interest, and redirecting into more profitable channels.
That seems like a very interesting way of looking at it. Seriously. I see it in a different way that isn't incompatible with yours, but stresses the issue differently. I'd say something like:
Microsoft has shown a consistent pattern of behavior over the years, that it isn't satisfied to produce any of their products for the revenue generated by that product. Instead they look to have every one of their products reenforce all of their other products.
Pretty much every one of their products interlock with MS-only standards, formats, protocols, etc. They have a put a tremendous investment in over the years into vendor lock-in and incompatibility. With every product they introduce, if you want to know why they're introducing that product, you should ask yourself, "How can Microsoft possibly use this product to promote all of their other products?"
For search engines, there is an unfortunate obvious answer: skewing results towards their own products. I don't think it's too paranoid to expect Microsoft to do this to the extent that they believe they can get away with it.
Re:And? (Score:3, Interesting)
MS has a right to return whatever results they want with Bing. It's a free service. They have no obligation to serve you impartially. Get over your unfounded sense of entitlement.
Not necessarily. Lying about the product that you're offering your customer is generally considered fraud, which is illegal in many countries. The common expectation (the opinions of technology-oriented people like us aren't considered common) is that a search engine gives results in some generally unbiased manner, and particularly does not hide results that might be critical of the owner of the search engine.
Re:And? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:And? (Score:2, Interesting)
I just want accurate results from a search engine.
Then don't use Microsoft's search engine. Given their stellar track record with designing an operating system, an office suite, a web browser, etc, did you really think that their search engine would be well-designed?
I call BS, and so does your mom... (Score:4, Interesting)
There are other "decisions" afoot.... (Score:4, Interesting)
I work for a large bank... suddenly, our mandated IE 7, which used to allow you to add other search engines, now only allows Bing. (in the search bar.. it isn't like they've blocked Google). But it is still quite annoying, and things like this don't get deployed by accident to thousands of employees.
Re:And? (Score:1, Interesting)
I tested searching for "Microsoft Linux".
The results were biased towards articles in swedish; I'm from Sweden, but it seems that that wasn't the only bias...
1st result: http://www.mslinux.org/ [mslinux.org]A "MS version of Linux" spoof.
2nd: http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=sv&sl=sv&tl=en&u=http://www.idg.se/2.1085/1.236944/sa-krossar-microsoft-linux&prev=hp [google.com]"Så krossar Microsoft Linux" - "How Microsoft crushes Linux" (via Google Translate)
3rd: http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=sv&sl=sv&tl=en&u=http://blogs.technet.com/microsoftnyheter/archive/2009/07/21/microsoft-sl-pper-kod-till-linux.aspx&prev=hp [google.com]An article from one of MS' sites about their GPL code donation. (via Google Translate)
4th: http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=sv&sl=sv&tl=en&u=http://www.idg.se/2.1085/1.236944/sa-krossar-microsoft-linux?articleRenderMode=listpostings&prev=hp [google.com]The comments page for the "Så krossar Microsoft Linux"-article. (via Google Translate)
5th: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsserver/compare/default.mspx [microsoft.com]Getthefacts 2.0
6th: http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=sv&sl=sv&tl=en&u=http://opensource.idg.se/2.1014/1.236944/sa-krossar-microsoft-linux?articleRenderMode=listpostings&prev=hp [google.com]Basically the 4th result, but on a different page. (via Google Translate)
7th: http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=sv&sl=sv&tl=en&u=http://www.datormagazin.se/nyheter/article485456.ece&prev=hp [google.com]Another article about the GPL contribution. (via Google Translate)
8th: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/features/2009/Jul09/07-20LinuxQA.mspx [microsoft.com]Microsoft.com GPL code contribution.