Microsoft Bing, this company’s latest foray into the search world, might be less innovative then it is purported to be.
First there is the recent attention given to the similarities of Kayak, a travel search engine and Bing’s own travel search feature were, according to Wired Magazine, “uncomfortably close”. Whitney Burke, director of Bing, has denied Kayak’s claims. “We are discussing the matter with Kayak,” she said. “Bing Travel is based on independent development by Microsoft and Farecast.com, which Microsoft acquired in 2008. Any contrary allegations are without merit.” It is the use of the sliders that are on the Kayak site that are the primary dispute.
Then there is Hakia and their claims that the categories feature is mightily similar to their own galleries, which is part of what made their search engine so unique. Hakia been in early partnership talks with Microsoft in July, and their COO told reporters: “We were approached by Microsoft to show them how the hakia galleries worked, and we did, and now they have a similar feature — we showed them how to do it,” she said. “We were surprised that it is a featured part of and the most differentiated part of Bing.”
The issue here is not that these search engines “look similar”, it is that Microsoft may have possibly co-opted the semantic technologies and artificial intelligence of these other engines. But, at the end of the day, a vast majority of what is on the web has been pirated in some shape or form and can Microsoft really be held accountable for this?
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