What is Microsoft Doing With Bing?

What are the key words that I associate with a great search engine? Words like thorough, believable, unbiased, honest, integrity, consistent, user friendly, immediately come to me. There are others, but when I started writing, I was stunned that the same brand attributes I attached to a search engine are almost exactly the same as those I look for in a reliable news source. I am sure each of us has their own list of attributes that can fill in a particular blank, but I think you get the picture.

Why am I bringing this up? Well:

• First, I am in public relations and can see a spin a mile away
• Second, Microsoft's Bing just announced they surpassed Yahoo to become the #2 search engine in the world in just a few weeks
• Third, I noticed that when I enter a wrong URL in an Internet Explorer browser, I am automatically sent to Bing.com where the search engine is conveniently filled in with my error-ridden URL.

Now, while there is nothing inherently wrong with this "service", aside from it being incredibly annoying. While there is nothing illegal about this, it just reeks of being a shady marketing tactic. so much so, that I have begun to doubt Bing's integrity. I now wonder if the little lie they implied in their release is the way they do business in general. Yes, I now mistrust them. I have to ask, if they are willing to build a public relations campaign based on a little lie, how they are managing the rest of their business? Can I trust their search results? How do I know that the links they are sending you are truly an unbiased look into the web, or just another form of paid advertising?

Let me put it to you this way. Firefox's Mozilla established themselves based on the quality of their product. People tried it. They loved it. They passed it on. They raved about it. Mozilla Firefox then spread virally. There was no need for them to spin what was happening. It happened because Firefox was, and is, a great product - simple and true.

Unfortunately Microsoft failed to have the patience to let the consumer decide for themselves. In so doing, it has done a great disservice to itself by trying to spin something that is based in a false-hood. They did not do anything illegal, but their efforts were deceitful. They misled me, and a great many other people, with the idea that their product was just so popular that it took off by itself. When in fact, the growth was due to programming tricks like the default program on Internet Explorer. If you think I'm wrong, then try this little test. Enter the following URL into both IE and Firefox Mozilla - "www.google.colm".

On Firefox you will get an error message. On Internet Explorer you will get directed to Bing.com with your mistyped URL preloaded into the search bar: and Microsoft will tic off another person using Bing.

Bing - Unfortunately, I know Google. And you sir, are no Google - just a squeaky little program who's trying to buck the system. And in so doing, you are undermining your own service, your brand, and the brand integrity of the larger Microsoft.

Next time Think.


Think Cannon

www.thinkcannon.com