This is reprehensible if true, and it appears it is. It doesn't matter if Google are better or worse, all that matters is that Google's services are being misrepresented as another company's work. That's not on and should be remedied immediately with Google recompensed appropriatelty. That's how business works, like it or not.

Now, does this mean Microsoft, who already have history in copying from others in one shape or another, endorse this sort of thing? Of course not. Microsoft, in this context, doesn't even exist as a thinking entity; this is down to the mistakes and errors of individuals working in one small department of a huge company. When you employ around 90,000 people, a few bad eggs will slip in no matter how you try to avoid it; mistakes will happen. That's clearly what we have here: a mistake that should never have happened. Do you really think theft of this kind would ever be endorsed by a company as huge as Microsoft? Do you honestly think it is standard Microsoft practice to steal from others? Do you, hand on heart, think it's not stupid individuals that cause these problems, but company policy as a whole? Yes? Do you really think that tin-foil hat looks good on you?

Bing marketshare in search > PS3 and Xbox 360 individual marketshare in console sales...

So you can answer your question based that.

Thats only because its the search engine for internet explorer. Its like saying people use internet explorer. Its installed first in most computers with Bing. 

I suggest reading the full thread before posting... this was done with the opt-in Bing toolbar which is designed to store user-related searches to taylor its results better to each user.

Step 1. User searched for a specific page on google

Step 2. Bing toolbar tied that search to that specific user

Step 3. Same search yielded same page on bing a week later...FOR THAT USER

Google opt-in toolbar works the same way. If a user used bing to find a page with a specific search, and has google toolbar installed, google will store that data and will show the user the same page with the same search on Google.

So Google is just using PR BS and wasting time here.  I'd suggest they improve their maps section instead as Bing owns them in that department...

I've reread the source, and what you write above is not what I read.

Here is a better source:

http://www.engadget.com/2011/02/01/google-accuses-bing-of-cheating-piggybacking-off-its-search-r/

"Here's how it works: find a search term that returns no matches for either site, make a "honeypot" page manually appear for the term, then have about 20 Google employees make the search (and click the top link) using Internet Explorer with both Suggested Sites and the Bing Toolbar on. Within two weeks, Singhal claims, a handful (about 7 to 9) of the 100 or so "honeypot" results were popping up in Bing. Bizarre choices, too, like mbrzxpgjys, hiybbprqag, and indoswiftjobinproduction."

"So, is this "cheating," as Singhal specifically alleges? The experiment had to be run with Bing's toolbar and / or Suggested Search feature activated, which it explicitly says are used to collect data and improve services. And more popular search terms do return different results, It's not as if Microsoft is using non-public information, but is this an example of taking an unfair shortcut?"

Microsofts reply:

"We use multiple signals and approaches in ranking search results. The overarching goal is to do a better job determining the intent of the search so we can provide the most relevant answer to a given query. Opt-in programs like the toolbar help us with clickstream data, one of many input signals we and other search engines use to help rank sites."

Nowhere on the engadget link do they say it's specifically for that user. At present we can only assume that's the case (which I personally think is likely), but at the sametime neither google or Microsoft have explicitly stated it's user specific. It's still possible that the info is sent back to Microsoft and utilised on a more global scale for Bing searches.

The other issue is whether google's toolbar associates other search engine terms and their results as google accuses the Bing toolbar of doing. Not sure why Google would bother complaining if they use a similar system (well, PR, but risky PR- I've used Bing more since this thread started to compare results, lol).

Either way, I don't think Google have a case in the legal arena as they don't own the data people search for. Thought this was an interesting read on the legal side if anyone's interested:

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/If-Bing-Is-Copying-Googles-paidcontent-3917441846.html?x=0&.v=2

I agree that engadget doesn't state its the same user...but the way my coleague explained it, it had to be the same user.

Google does to the same thing with its toolbar...infact, Google went 1 step further and had a suppsed "glitch" where the user wasn't able to turn off data mining even after disabling it in the toolbar.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-11-09/google-sued-over-claims-toolbar-web-surfing-software-reveals-personal-data.html

For Bing to do this, you have to turn suggested sites feature on...enabling the toolbar to collect data and give you suggestions based on past browsing.

As far as using Bing VS google for testing, here is a fun way to do it... http://www.bing-vs-google.com/