I like using Bing every now and then. But most of the time I’m looking for targeted relevancy to what I’m searching for, so Google is the way to go on that.

I do like a few things about Bing, their design is better in my opinion and the info pop up about the url does a lot when searching, you get to know what you are about to click on a lot better than Google title and description. I look forward to reading my post by you Paul, keep up the great content.

Jason Braud

I don’t think that we can say with confidence that “Google is only keeping data that would be relevant to a search engine.” Google has all of the data – e-mail contacts and messages, site analytics, photo uploads, feedreader information, mobile data, as well as your search patterns and queries. One has only to recall AOL’s 2006 leak of hundreds of thousands of users’ search queries with personal information to realize that the potential exists for misuse. I’m not accusing Google of misusing it yet, or even of planning to. However, the way they slipped in the expansion of personalization smacked to me of Big Brother tactics, and it made me uncomfortable enough to do something about it.

There’s always a tradeoff between convenience and security. Personalization may make it easier and faster to find what you’re looking for, but at what risk? It’s like locking your front door. Bringing in an armload of groceries would sure be faster and easier if I didn’t have to struggle with a key, but that doesn’t mean I’ll leave the door unlocked. Security is worth a bit of inconvenience.

I honestly don’t see the harm in that. So what. Google is only keeping data that would be relevant to a search engine anyway. I don’t care if Google knows what I search for, and I don’t know why anybody would. It’s not like there are people meticulously perusing everything I’ve searched. It’s just a couple algorithms calculating relevance based on my past preferences.

You must have forgotten about Microsoft’s reputation already. They’re known for circumventing progress by proprietizing standards; Google supports open standards. Microsoft does wrong to get more money out of our reliance on its products; Google does “evil” because it wants to improve our overall experience.

Even if you’re just trying to give Google some competition, I still don’t understand. Microsoft is worth several billion more than Google. As far as search is concerned Microsoft may still be the underdog, but big picture: Microsoft has a large enough share of the American economy.

Also, I’d like to say that Google does great things with its personalization — even its ads are great. They’re the only advertisements I have clicked on since I was in middle school.

I’m interested in hearing your response.

Geck0man – That’s an interesting point. I wonder what experience advertisers are having with Bing search ads. Because of targeting and personalization, I’ve read that often an advertiser has trouble running searches themselves to see their own ads in action. However, hopefully they can tell through analytics and conversion rates whether Bing is serving them up or not. If anyone has a case in point, feel free to share it. Thanks!

Regarding privacy concerns, I’m also not happy with Google (though I do credit CEO Schmidt with at least being open about it). As Asa Dotzler from Mozilla stated, Microsoft’s privacy policy is stronger and better, at least for now.

Andy