Are Bing search results biased?

June 1, 2009 in VCritical by Eric Gray | 7 comments

Google search for SCVMM

Over the past few months, VCritical has climbed in the Google search rankings for certain virtualization-related queries.  One especially notable search term is SCVMM, since there are quite a few articles written about that product on VCritical.  In fact, VCritical normally appears on the first page of Google search results for SCVMM — result number five at the moment.

Google’s search ranking algorithms are secret, but results are normally useful, accurate, and seemingly fair.

Bing search for SCVMM

Today I thought I’d try the new Bing search engine and see if VCritical comes up on the first page of SCVMM results.  Uh, no –  half-way down page three — quite a discrepancy.

Does anyone know who is behind this new search engine?  If I didn’t know better, I would say it’s Microsoft — but they are already busy with that other search engine that refuses to take off.  But it looks an awful lot like Google’s interface.  Hmm.

How does that old saying go?  “Freedom of the press — to anyone that can afford to buy one.”  The same applies to Web search engines, evidently.

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  1. Steve’s avatar

    Steve on June 1, 2009 at 2:47 pm

    It is Microsoft. I don’t know that they’re biased but I heard their results are not up to par with Google.

    Reply

  2. Bob’s avatar

    Bob on June 2, 2009 at 1:20 pm

    So you want all other search engines to just query Google, then take the search results and display them in a different format cause Google happens to have you on the first page?

    Sounds like someone is a sore loser.

    Reply

  3. Randy’s avatar

    Randy on June 4, 2009 at 7:44 pm

    I noticed this as well- look what happens when you type in ‘Linux’ to both Bing and Google.

    http://www.angrylibertarian.com/node/62

    Nice site btw.

    Reply

    1. Eric Gray’s avatar

      Eric Gray on June 5, 2009 at 5:46 am

      Randy, thanks for the contribution — I’m sure that’s just a coincidence. I mean, lots of people out there search for Linux Vista, don’t they? It’s helpful. Do the same thing with “vmware” and look what doesn’t come up… ESX, vSphere. Instead, you get Player, Server, Fusion — the less-threatening products.

      Bob, regarding “reformatting Google’s results”… looks like Bing does just the opposite. Supply MSFT-friendly results in a virtual clone of Google’s interface. Oh, there is a snazzy background image but the thing was clearly modeled on Google. No innovation here.

      The average consumer using the default browser on their default operating system (IE on Windows) will get Bing as their default search engine and be none the wiser. As my tech-challenged mother once said, “…if you can’t find [it] with a regular search, use a Google search.”

      Thanks for the comments, guys. All viewpoints — opposing and otherwise — are welcome.

      Reply

  4. melatoninlady’s avatar

    melatoninlady on August 22, 2009 at 3:14 am

    Microsoft Bing would be the closet competitor of Google. but i still use Google because it shows more relevant results on the serp.

    Reply

  5. George’s avatar

    George on September 1, 2009 at 11:04 pm

    i have been evaluating the search results of Microsoft Bing compared to Google and they are comparable. Bing gives almost the same relevant search results just like Google.

    Reply

  6. Eric Gray’s avatar

    Eric Gray on September 2, 2009 at 11:29 am

    Uh… George… a statement like that would be more convincing if accompanied by some examples to back it up.

    Reply