Bing bothers Google. Microsoft's search engine, which was launched in 2009, captured 17% of the US market - and, when combined with Yahoo (which also uses Microsoft's search technology), reaches 30.8%. That's why the folks at Google started keeping a close eye on their competitor. And they noticed that certain Bing results were looking more and more like those presented by Google itself. Plagiarism?
Suspicion fell on the Bing Toolbar, a browser toolbar distributed by Microsoft. This program provides shortcuts to search faster. It also monitors, with the user's consent, their browsing: it sees what the person clicked on and sends this information to Microsoft, which uses the data to improve Bing. As it turns out, every now and then Bing Toolbar users also searched on Google. And when that happened... Bingo. Microsoft recorded the results generated by Google, saw which ones people clicked on, and incorporated everything into its own search engine. Plagiarism.
In a movie-worthy maneuver, Google engineers set a trap to catch Microsoft. It worked. Google managed to generate proof that it was being copied (see infographic on the side). And they went on the attack. "Some Bing results look like an old, incomplete version of ours," teased Google engineer Amit Singhal. Microsoft responded by saying that, yes, it uses data collected by the Bing Toolbar to improve its results - but that this is just one of many signals it uses. "We definitely do not copy Google's search results," defended Stefan Weitz, director of Bing.
Understand the trick used by Google
1. The trap
Google engineers set a trap: the word "hiybbprqag", which means nothing. It is inserted into Google search results - if someone types it, they will get a link (which leads to a website created by Google).
2. The operation
Twenty Google engineers install Microsoft's Bing Toolbar program on their computers. Their mission: google the fake term ("hiybbrqag") and click on the result that appears on the screen. The goal is to induce Microsoft's program to copy this information.
3. The proof
Twenty days later, the crazy word appears in Bing's results, even pointing to the same link. In other words: Bing incorporated meaningless information planted by Google - which presents this as proof.
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