Here’s the thing: It’s no secret that Microsoft loses gobs of money on Bing, quarter after quarter, and year after year. It’s also no secret that Bing will remain a viable property, if for no other reason than it’s Google’s only serious competition. Also, it’s fun to say.
Facebook, meanwhile, could use a robust search offering to counter Google, especially now that Google+ has set itself up on a nice little tract of Zuckerberg’s sandbox. Bing already incorporates Facebook in its results; full integration would make for the first truly social search experience, and the only real point of differentiation for a Mountain View alternative. And it’s not like Facebook’s lacking for cash.
So again: not a rumour. Not something that could or might happen, not right now. But something that should. For Microsoft, for Facebook. And for you. [NY Times]
Andrew
Wednesday, July 27, 2011 at 7:39 AMYes, it costs money to take on a massive competitor in search like Google. No, half a billion to gain 25% of global search is not a lot, it’s actually a remarkable feat and quite the bargain given it’s estimated value. To suggest that they should sell is extemely shortseighted and shows a complete absense of strategic understanding.
olearymo
Wednesday, July 27, 2011 at 9:30 AMBing is killing Microsoft? I thought Bing was doing okay?
Man. I feel outta the loop. Seriously, from what I was hearing it was surprising everyone by doing well? Maybe that was just early days.
TSH
Wednesday, July 27, 2011 at 12:04 PMFWIW, IMHO Bing is one of the pillars that has been helping MS towards being a great aggregator: pretty much everything that’s not actually owned by Google can be synced, searched, indexed and is compatible with MS products.
They know what they’re doing, and they have the resources to make it work.
Richard
Wednesday, July 27, 2011 at 12:19 PM“Facebook, meanwhile, could use a robust search offering to counter Google, especially now that Google+ has set itself up on a nice little tract of Zuckerberg’s sandbox.”
“So again: not a rumour. Not something that could or might happen, not right now. But something that should”
Why? Google having a search engine isn’t a reason for Facebook to have one, there has to be more to that argument to make it worthwhile.
People like Google+ but that doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with Google owning a search engine or not. People just like the UI and functionality of it and the fact its something fresh.
On the contrary a service like Bing in many ways would only serve to take people away from the Facebook site as searches throw you in other directions. It’s very much yet to be proven whether Google will ever become a defacto way to search for people and the type of information you would typically want to locate on Facebook.
Ohh, and if Bing is causing issues to MSs bottom line to the extent argued (which is likely debatable), then why would it be of any benefit to Facebook to inherit what is supposedly a sinking ship.
sam
Wednesday, July 27, 2011 at 2:31 PMMocrosoft and Facebook both companies are evil. Micrsoft has tried to crush many things using anti-compatitive behaviour for example web browsers since the time of Netscape navigator. Facebook wants to kill your privacy and keep you coming back to Facebook ANY WAY IT CAN. for example I stopped using facebook 12 months ago, I kept receiving emails saying “you have 2 new notifications” when I click ont he link, it asks me to log in. And after I am logged on there are no new messages – I still receive this type of messages from Facebook, I just don’t click on them anymore.
It does not matter if Bing stays with Microsoft or Facebook, it does not make much difference to the end user.
End user/customer usually supports the idea and technics behind any company, and both of them are evil in this case. Google on the other end is not (not that much?)
olearymo
Wednesday, July 27, 2011 at 3:46 PMAll large companies are evil.
Osiris Fox
Friday, July 29, 2011 at 1:52 PMMicrosoft is a very different beast now and was broken down immensely when it was ruled that it must be broken up. They’ve never fully recovered. Google and Facebook will face the same one day if they get too Anti-Comp.