Bing Sting Raises Trust, Credibility Issues

Small business owners who are eager to bump up their online presence frequently ask us if they ought to get listed on Bing. Until the last couple of months we said sure - do Google first and then, yeah, do Bing. We saw some numbers showing that Bing's share of search is growing and combined with their deal to power Yahoo search it could add up to nearly a third of all search activity. But after Google's Bing Sting we're rethinking that.

Bing put up a good fight and tried to spin opinion its way. Still, its clickstream argument never really rang true. And there's some compelling evidence that it's more spin than substance.

Google Makes Compelling Case

Matt Cutts' recent post shows how MSIE8 uses 'Suggested Sites' as a euphemism for 'send Bing your Google clickstream'. There's no apparent disclosure and it may sound to the casual user like a good idea. Cutts also shows side-by-side screen shots of Google's sting searches and Bing's results. Many of the Bing searches are identical and others seem too close to be a coincidence. It's surprising that the sting hasn't caused more of an uproar.

The question is one of credibility as well as one of substance. If you get the same results once removed why not stick with the real deal? And if a business slyly prompts a user to provide clickstream data from a competitor's product so both services appear to be on the same plane . . . well, doesn't that seem a little weak?

Would you recommend a business that operates that way?