SEO News: Bing Categorically Denies Copying Search Results

The ongoing argument between Google and rivals Bing took another twist yesterday, with Yusef Mehdi (Senior Vice President Of Online Services For Microsoft) categorically denying copying search results from Google.

In a post published on the Bing Search blog (in reply to Google’s accusation that Bing has been stealing their results), Mehdi stated:

It was interesting to watch the level of protest and feigned outrage from Google … but before we explore that, let me clear up a few things once and for all. We do not copy results from any of our competitors. Period. We have some of the greatest minds in the world at work on search quality and relevance, and for one of our competitors to accuse any of these people of such an activity is just insulting.

I think Mehdi probably has some right to be annoyed by Google’s recent antics, particularly given that copying a competitor is a) nothing particularly new in this industry, and b) something Google has done regularly over the last few years. Not only are Google not above copying a competitor in order to make their own service better (essentially what they’ve been so annoyed at Bing for doing), but they’ve regularly imitated innovations first seen on Bing, (image search, adding personalised backgrounds, left hand side navigation, etc).

I’m sure the war of words between Google and Bing is far from over, and knowing Google they won’t led Medhi or Bing get the last word, so keep your ears peeled for a Google retort any day now.