Google-Microsoft Search Spat Intensifies

Is Microsoft’s Bing search engine, so clearly the underdog against Google, merely copying the results of its more popular competitor? Stuart Johnston reports on the imbroglio.

Google alleged this week that Microsoft’s Bing search results have recently begun to mirror its own too closely and, after setting a trap, is accusing Bing of aping its results and presenting them as its own.

Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) vehemently denies Google’s (NASDAQ: GOOG) allegations. Now, it’s become a nasty skirmish of sorts pitting a pair of Microsoft executives against a top Google engineer.

“Our testing has concluded that Bing is copying Google web search results,” Google Fellow Amit Singhal said in a statement emailed to InternetNews.com.

The controversy began on Tuesday morning when the blog Search Engine Land reported the results of Google’s tests. That afternoon, Singhal posted his accusations on The Official Google blog, along with sample searches from the two competing services, demonstrating what he called “copying” by Microsoft.

Read the rest at Internetnews.