Microsoft is fervently, if somewhat inconvincingly, refuting Google's claim that Bing copies Google search results.
A blog post from The Bing Team expresses its bemusement over the "feigned outrage from Google" over the supposed copy-catting, first reported on Search Engine Land.
Bing leader Yusuf Mehdi writes, "We do not copy results from any of our competitors. Period. Full stop."
He goes on to explain his theory of how Google tricked them ... possibly into copying Google's results.
Google engaged in a “honeypot” attack to trick Bing. In simple terms, Google’s “experiment” was rigged to manipulate Bing search results through a type of attack also known as “click fraud.” That’s right, the same type of attack employed by spammers on the web to trick consumers and produce bogus search results.
Mehdi's response also has a bit of the defensive and a lot of the non-transparency that may have more cred with those who care and follow these things. Silicon Alley comes right at it: "Microsoft seems to be saying, 'because Google tricked us into copying Google, it doesn't count as copying Google.' "
