Google Algorithm Czar Does NBC Interview About Bing
… and forgets to bring up that people using Google TV wouldn’t be able to watch it on NBC’s site. He did however lay down in plain English (as a second language) how Microsoft done him wrong. Microsoft was too busy collecting “click stream signals” to join him live but they sent a buggy WMV of a response with the usual “we did not copy blah blah FULL STOP, Period.” Sefan Weitz, perhaps for the irony, copied one of his own marketing guys practically verbatim.
I think the fifteen minutes of this subject is about to expire, but I want to post this so that you can see for yourself whether or not this man is just joining in on some big PR stunt or if this is in fact as simple as he claims, that he just wants, from one scientist to another team, to knock it off. More than a few of you insist he’s part of a spin machine.
Though he does stop short of pledging never to use a background image again on any Google webpage which would have been received as a strong gesture by Microsoft who keeps bringing that up as if it were significant like having the extent of their innovation being come up with a way to kick back, smoke grass and playing xBox while letting its search engine and Suggested Sites coast on autopilot to morph into a cheap imitation of Google. The clips:
One more…
Doug Simmons
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Doug Simmons
Biographical info.. hmm. I have a history of not being able to strike the balance between what is "safe" to put into these forms and what is, in my mind at least, funny. Can't do it.
Google wouldn’t track searh results through their toolbar? Really? You mean, since they got caught a eyar ago doing it and are involved in itigation over it because after users opted out it was still sending data. Flashback- last year:
http://www.benedelman.org/news/012610-1.html
“Certain Google Toolbar features require transmitting to Google servers the full URLs users browse. For example, to tell users the PageRank of the pages they browse, the Google Toolbar must send Google servers the URL of each such page. Google Toolbar’s “Related Sites” and “Sidewiki” (user comments) features also require similar transmissions.
With a network monitor, I confirmed that these transmissions include the full URLs users visit – including domain names, directories, filenames, URL parameters, and search terms. For example, I observed the transmission below when I searched Yahoo”
So running a Yahoo search transmitted the search term to Google as well as the URLs visited. The only reason Google wants this data is to use it for their ranking system. So they were doing the same exact thing that Bing was doing except Google was caught doing this a year ago (and got involved in litigation over it).
Oh there are pretty pictures that show all of this as well including the data content of what Google was collecting. In other words: BULLSHIT GOOGLE. The whole company is a fraud. This episode shows that they now Bing is doing something right and is closing the gap so they need to use dirty tricks to try to stop Bing’s momentum.
Just because an engineer’s feelings are hurt does not mean his claims are legit. If google had any class they would have approached bing and asked for an explanation before going public. They did not do that and instead fired a PR stunt across the bow of Bing. Even if their claims were 100% accurate (which they are not, see below) the whole thing becomes a PR ploy once they start blathering about their goofball sting operation to everyone besides the Bing folks who, in fact, have just as much to be upset as google does because from their point of view, have been called cheaters in public cause or even fair warning.
> coast on autopilot to morph into a cheap imitation of Google.
Just like with your clueless touting of a gmail feature hotmail has had for years you don’t actually get any real information before post. Do you realize that the guy who started all this now has long post with a deeper explanation of what’s going on and explaining that Bing’s explanation make more sense than most of goog’s accusations.
http://searchengineland.com/bing-why-googles-wrong-in-its-accusations-63279
@ David K
Danny Sullivan has asked them directly to answer the question of what their toolbar actually does and as chatty as they have been, that… they won’t talk about. Shocker.
>>> From the Danny Sullivan article:
As For The Google Toolbar Meanwhile, I’m on my third day of waiting to hear back from Google about just what exactly it does with its own toolbar. Now that the company has fired off accusations against Bing about data collection, Google loses the right to stay as tight-lipped as it has been in the past about how the toolbar may be used in search results.
Google’s initial denial that it has never used toolbar data “to put any results on Google’s results pages” immediately took a blow given that site speed measurements done by the toolbar DO play a role in this. So what else might the toolbar do?
>>>
Perfect google they are happy to chat until caught fibbing and then suddenly, nobody should wonder why they turn silent.
You are a retarded fanboy Doug Simmons, not different from the kids that post comments on engadget.
The engineer’s claims are not legit because what, because of whether or not they approached Bing or because the man’s feelings were hurt … see below
Okay seeing below, so the claims may also not be legit because in his chat with searchenglineland he forgot or deliberately left out that the Google Toolbar measures load speed but does not otherwise contribute …
Maybe I’m not seeing the big picture pastc0 but is it true or untrue that Google can manipulate search results on Bing simply by creating fake search result pages and clicking around with IE, then waiting two weeks? Let’s start with that. Then I’ll ask you if you’d call that copying, replicating the way their search engine behaves.
Did you read Sullivan’s follow up article?
no, sorry … went out tonight
I think we should hold a poll of Mobility Digest readers to choose between
(a) Mobility Digest readers donate to pay to Doug Simmons for every article that he does not write.
(b) Doug Simmons should fix that appointment with his shrink that he’s been putting off (and send the bills to Google).
(c) Pack Doug Simmons in a driverless time machine (made by Google) and send him to any time warp before 26 March 1973 i.e., BEFORE Larry Page or Sergey Brin wre even born.
Salil that’s interesting as I thought of doing the same thing (hey, that fits the article’s theme!) but the problem with that is that the majority of visitors are new so we’d be wasting valuable poll space. Also, when it comes to my contributing here at all or not, I know what’s best for you. You need me. Say hello to the bad guy.
As for my shrink to-deal-with-list, given how poorly I am able to function in this little online society, wouldn’t you be able to imagine how many real life issues I’d probably need professional help with? For example, time travel fatigue and any Freudian issues that may have been precipitated by seeing my mother in her thirties? I’d never get to this website and my Google insanity.
Love or hate his work, Doug fills a much needed niche here at mobility so don’t wish him away too quickly. I’m not talking about his self-proclaimed bad guy role either. He’s an admitted android fanboy and so is best positioned to cover that area of tech. I don’t see anybody else pumping out post after post (after post 😉 on all that is Google with his frothing-at-the-mouth passion. I don’t buy into Googles mantra, every company will ultimately be self-serving and every move Google makes is a calculated one, legal or not. That being said, this understanding didn’t stop me from choosing the G2 over the iphone, dell venue pro, or any of the other choices. Google may not be the choir boy company they want everyone to believe they are but they sure have changed the game! We all benefit. This was written with swype on my G2. Amazing.
@Cjc: So he’s an idiot savant.
No one criticizes Doug for being a Google fanboy. He’s criticized for having his head so far up his ass that he can’t admit how silly some of his comments are.