They did it to Netscape, and they are trying it again on Google.

Microsoft is stealing what works and refining it to suit their needs with just enough modifications to make it marginally unique. This time their effort is called Bing.

If you missed the announcement earlier this month, Microsoft Live Search is now Bing.

Search Engine Watch remarked about the first week trend data which showed Bing stealing a 6% market share from Google. My guess is much of this traffic was related to the search engine freaks like myself who tested the system during the first week rather then use our the default favorite, Google. However, I’m fairly confident that this 6% reduction in Google’s market share is a sign of times to come.

Earlier today I spoke to Greg Davoll, VP of Marketing at Worksoft and fellow tech junkie. We’re both in agreement that something is different about Bing that makes us both feel that this new attack on Google might actually have traction.

Let’s break down a few reasons why:

1. Bing is visually refreshing
   The homepage image rotates out daily. By contrast Google’s white background gets old fast. It’s a minor difference but it’s enough to add life to the engine without adding complexity.
2. Is this AdWords?
   The is almost no difference in the placement of the paid-ad results. As a lifetime hater of Microsoft AdCenter this new development has caused me to rethink using AdCenter as a viable alternative to AdWords.
3. It’s about the Width
   Bing has a wider default layout then Google. When measuring the “related searches” on the left, space given to natural results and the ads on the right, Bing is 955 pixels wide. By comparison Google measures a measly 1990’s standard minimum width of 630 pixels. This added real-estate allows Bing to offer user-friendly related searches, along with the user’s recent search history. As the user mouses over the natural results a light gray vertical line appears with a centered circle. Mousing over the gray line previews text from the destination homepage to the right of the results. This gives the user a quick way to evaluate a site, without actually clicking through.
4. Results are just different enough
   I use search engines multiple times during the day, it’s the nature of our industry. During my 1 week switch to Bing I found I only needed to use Google twice. In both occasions it was for local search or mapping related queries. Otherwise, I found Bing’s results to be as good as Google’s. Many times the Top 20 results were similar in content but sorted / prioritized differently by each engine.

I’m about as big of a Google fanboy as they come. Yet, despite my love for all things Google I’ve got to say Bing is certainly a viable challenger. I’ll be making the switch over to Bing for a few more weeks to see if I can live & work without Google. I’m sure I’m not the only one looking for something different.

We’ve had a bit of discussion in the office recently regarding Steve Balmer’s threatening letter to Yahoo! and MS’s potential acquisition of it.

Balmer makes several strong points in his letter. One, that the current state of the economy today makes the offer even better than it was several months ago. And two, that the board of directors may be potentially ignoring their share holder base and the best monetary outcome for it. After clarifying MS’s position, Balmer said that MS would be forced to go directly to the share holders if Yahoo! didn’t re-consider their offer and start a path of negotiations.

This can be looked at from a couple different points of view. On the one hand, this is a very Microsoft “strong arm” type of move — trying to take what MS thinks is theirs, regardless of the potential obstacles that might lie in the way. On the other hand, MS makes a few good points. A large majority of expert analysis suggested in January that Microsoft’s 62% premium offer over Yahoo!’s stock price was a good deal for share holders. And while many holders may believe in getting the best deal they can, they also don’t want to potentially throw a deal away all together.

Still, what is most interesting about this battle is the publicity of it. Both sides are using the press to their full advantage. Making hostile bids and equally hostile rebuttals. In my opinion it seems that the PR battle occurring on both sides could potentially harm both the perceived outcome of a deal by the public as well as the employees of both companies. Yahoo! and MS have very different cultures and the last thing a sustained group of Yahoo! employees will want is the feeling of being overtaken forcefully by a hostile company.

It seems unlikely that MS won’t get their way at some point. However, the question remains that even if MS is capable of forcing Yahoo! into a buyout, will governments both here in the U.S. and abroad allow it to happen? This process is definitely still in the early stages, but man what firefight it’s been so far.