Google vs. Bing Battle Heating Up: Is Google Scared?

Microsoft’s been on a promotional tear with its new “decision engine” Bing, a search engine that intends to do what Microsoft Live could not: compete with industry titan Google. Beyond some unique additions to the standard search interface, Microsoft has invested heavily in marketing: campaigns have included a live Bingathon and fast-forwarding commercials on The Daily Show.

Apparently, the Bing wave has caught Google’s attention. In a report published in the New York Post, Google has assembled a small team of top engineers to respond to the emergence of Bing, led by Google co-founder Sergey Brin. Is Google just being vigilant, or is the tech juggernaut genuinely concerned that Bing could be the entity that finally challenges it for market share?

The NYPost story has a few interesting tidbits. Key among them is that Google is making upgrades to its search engine in response to Bing, and that Sergey Brin himself is leading the team:

Brin, according to sources inside the tech behemoth, is himself leading the team of search-engine specialists in an effort to determine how Bing’s crucial search algorithm differs from that used by the company he founded in 1998 with Stanford University classmate Larry Page.

“New search engines have come and gone in the past 10 years, but Bing seems to be of particular interest to Sergey,” said one insider, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The Post has a knack for spin, and while Google may not be gripped by fear, we’d think it only prudent for the search leader to consider what threat, if any, Bing poses to its dominant market position. Google is not ignorant of new search competitors: in fact, one of its most recent products, Google Squared, is in part a response to the computational capabilities of Wolfram Alpha.

The bottom line: we’d be more concerned if Google was not paying attention to new competitors.

Also see: Google vs. Bing: The Blind Taste Test

Tags: bing, Google, microsoft