I love the drama in this post.  Search hasn't had that to this level in awhile.  So is it really cheating and against the rules/illegal or is it competitive business intelligence?  At this point, with the mud Google is throwing and not backing it up with a law suit, "are they starting to really be concerned about Bing?".

It is indeed quite fascinating! First that Google would have spotted it, then that they went to the trouble of fudging some results for their test, and then to actually have it work! The Google guys must have been excited to see it all come to fruition as it did.

Interesting, however, that only a very small number of their test "words" panned out. I guess that means Bing isn't totally copying Google at least!

Fully agree with you Jill!  I keep wondering if there is any real merit to Google's complaint or if they are just whining and lashing out through PR because Bing is tapping into resources (IE & toolbar) that Google does not?

I feel like there should have been a preview message at the end of this post:

"Next time, on Search Opera Weekly, Bing responds with "So, whatch gonna do 'bout it?", Google files 100 bazillion dollar lawsuit that legal experts call frivolous, Facebook weights in with "We're still kick'n A and we don't even have a real search engine", Yahoo throws a drink in Ask Jeeves face, and Blekko sits quietly in the corner planning it's next move..."

@jill it could also be that Bing is not that good at the copying technique itself, LOL.

Google don't need a lawsuit, they've created a mechanism to poison Bing's SERPs.

Maybe they've been doing just that since Dec 31st.