CNN posted an interesting article that pulls back the veil a little deeper on the relationship of Google & Bing. It’s a wise observation to see how Google has piggybacked many of Bing’s innovations.

I don’t use Bing much, so I wasn’t quite aware of how obvious it was. Here’s a few examples of how Google copied Bing.

1-    After Bing launched it’s colorful, photographic design, Google quickly tried to the same thing by allowing users to add images. They even had a default image for the background.  Users didn’t like it, so they quickly recanted. (shameful)

2-    Just one day after Bing announced the integration of Twitter into it’s search results, Google quickly made a deal with Twitter too. (desperate)

3-    Google even ‘borrowed’ Bing’s search results layout by breaking search results into categories. (smart)

Maybe Bing isn’t getting the recognition it deserves. Right now it’s just been known as the 3^rd place search engine, and I’m not sure any of us really believe that will ever change. (although we hope for it)

Do you guys like the things Google has copied from Bing and does it kind of make you want to give Bing some more search time to see if their innovations really are smarter?

Or are you so intergrated into Google’s apps (gmail, voice, chat, analytics) that you it wouldn’t make sense?

Comment below and hit the Facebook Like Button!

It’s official!

Microsoft announced today that they have struck a deal to power Yahoo’s search, while at the same time Yahoo will be powering paid ads on Bing.com (Microsoft’s new search platform…formerly known as MSN).

You can get all the details here:

http://www.microsoft.com/Presspass/press/2009/jul09/07-29release.mspx

…and here:

http://www.choicevalueinnovation.com/thedeal/Default.aspx

So why is this good news for marketers?

It’s simple. With Yahoo and Microsoft now a team, Google finally has some competition in the search market. This means:

1. Ad costs may go down, and…
2. Google may stop being such enormous jerks to their advertisers (which could mean less “Google Slaps”)

Obviously this is just my speculation, and the deal doesn’t go final until 2010 so don’t expect anything to change overnight, but competition is (almost) always a good thing for consumers, so for now, at least, I’m chearing this deal.

Comment below and let me know what you think…

-Ryan