Bing Search Tainted By Pro-Microsoft Results

bdcny7927 writes "Just as Bing is gaining popularity, some disturbingly pro-Microsoft and anti-Apple search results are rearing their ugly heads. Case in point: a search on Bing for the phrase, 'Why is Windows so expensive?' returned this as the top link: 'Why are Macs so expensive.' That's right. You're not hallucinating."

Comments

And?

[Gandalf_Greyhame]

Surprised, why?

Re:And?

[Eevee]

The surprise isn't that Microsoft is doing it, but rather that cio.com is the one calling them on it--a site aimed at upper management. This isn't fanboy-complaining, but business-complaining, something that will hit acceptance of Bing in the corporate environment.

Re:And?

[afidel]

Advertising and skewing search results are two VERY different things. Altering search results to your corporate whims makes your search engine useless IMHO, and the opinions of a lot of other people. That's what made Google so popular initially, their blind algorithm gave the 'best' results regardless of source or view.

Re:And?

[cabjf]

It never seems to occur to them that people might be genuinely interested in results that reflect what they actually want.

Sounds like the work of a bad programmer. Who else would take a question from a user and assume they know what the user really wants?

Re:And?

[awrz]

What's even more amusing is the first result:

Why are Mac's So Expensive? - Yahoo! Answers

I could care less about whether or not macs are more expensive, or about commercial OSS prices.

I just want accurate results from a search engine.

That's why....

[david_thornley]

That's why I have often taken my car to repair shops that are nothing but repair shops, not gas stations or tire stores or whatever doing car repair on the side. They have to live on the basis of their car repairs, and they are likely to pay attention to that, and if they do bad repairs they will go out of business.

Similarly, Google lives by its search engine, and people at Google know it. There is nothing more important to Google than returning good search results, and if somebody else starts returning better ones Google is in deep trouble.

It won't take much for me to conclude that a search engine operated by somebody like Microsoft or Apple is biased. A biased search engine isn't going to get me the results I want (unless, I guess, I agree with the bias, but in that case I run the risk of learning nothing and simply being confirmed in my ignorance). If Microsoft wants me to use Bing, they're going to have to be extra careful to avoid the appearance of bias.

Re:So what, it's MS's service...

[xtracto]

It is worth trying it for yourself:

http://www.cuil.com/search?q=Why+is+Windows+so+expensive%3F

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=Why+is+Windows+so+expensive%3F

http://www.bing.com/search?q=Why+is+Windows+so+expensive%3F

http://us.ask.com/web?q=Why+is+Windows+so+expensive%3F

http://www.cuil.com/search?q=Why+is+Windows+so+expensive%3F

http://www.altavista.com/web/results?itag=ody&q=Why+is+Windows+so+expensive%3F&kgs=1&kls=0

I guess there is no conspiracy at all, just different weights in the ordering algorithm... but hey, it is a cool experiment... unless maybe they are also colluding with CocaCola

http://www.altavista.com/web/results?itag=ody&q=why+does+pepsi+sucks%3F&kgs=1&kls=0
http://www.bing.com/search?q=why+does+pepsi+sucks%3F&go=&form=QBLH&qs=n

http://www.google.com/#hl=en&q=why+does+pepsi+sucks%3F&aq=f&oq=&aqi=&fp=CSrKZrhT3_U