Earlier this week, Google (GOOG) disclosed that it had run a sting operation on its main search page which clearly ascertained that Bing, a competitor search engine by Microsoft (MSFT), was using Google's search results to tweak its own search results. The furor over this has been all over the web ever since Danny Sullivan released a post at Search Engine Land titled, "Google: Bing Is Cheating, Copying Our Search Results". Google claims Microsoft is effectively 'cheating'. Microsoft admits openly that it uses Google results as one of many factors in its ranking. Is this copacetic? I say 100% yes. In fact, it's quite clever too. Here's the background to what's really happening.
There are three main background issues.
- Google is now seen as the biggest target for anti-trust regulators because of its dominance in search and advertising
- At the same time, Google's search results have deteriorated significantly of late.
- As a result, decent but distant competitors to Google have re-emerged in search.
Over the past decade, the tech world has moved away from a computer-centric world dominated by the Wintel duopoly to one in which the web is central. Google dominates web search with the overwhelming share in nearly every important market. China is a notable exception. As Google grows in scope and size, it is coming under increased regulatory scrutiny. As with the anti-trust investigations of Microsoft a decade ago, the European Union is the leading government body giving Google greater scrutiny. Much of the mainstream press has
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