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Microsoft is copying Google search results.

Clickstream data != copying search results.



This is the lie that you keep telling yourselves. Rationalize it however you want, but show a normal person the screenshots on this page and ask them if there is copying going on: http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/google-bing/

Maybe you call it "clickstream," maybe you think this has something to do with the user (even though the users had no idea they were aiding in this), this web of rationalizations cannot get around this fact:

Bing puts things in its search index that came directly from Google's algorithm.


...that came directly from Google's algorithm

That is a lie.

1. User searches for specific string 2. Google pulls up the results 3. User clicks on the result

Bing makes a corelation between the user's search string and the URL they end up on and takes a note of it. There is very little algorithm involved here because there is only one listing for that string. The algorithm is primarily used to rank pages. In order for Google to convince me that Bing is copying them, they would need to show a consistent before and after of Bing copying the search results and its order. Emphasis on resultS--in plural.

Neither are present in the Google honeypot. There is only one search result returned; and there is no question of the order of search results cuz of that. Two items central to the algorithm are entirely missing.

Going back to what Microsoft does copy:

1. it copies the user's input--imo this belongs to the user

2. it does not copy the order of search results nor scrape the returned search results returned by google

3. it copies the url the user ends up on, which is effectively a user's browsing history that the user has opted in to share with Bing.




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