BING: Because It Needs Google

Google and Bing have been at it for years with the latter (supposedly) poised to eat out of the former's leadership. But, never had they reached very heated temperatures until an interesting turn of events recently. A few hours' back, Google claimed Bing uses their search results! Backed by a string of evidences from an intricate sting operation (details of which are here), coupled with a PR move that stung as well, Google published on their own blog their findings of what might just be the start of an epic battle with Bing.

So, how did Google do it? They came up with a number of "synthetic queries" or queries that users would least likely use. For each synthetic query, they assigned a top search result that returned a link totally unrelated to the query. One such example would be "hiybbprqag" which, when Googled, would return (at least, during the sting operation) what appears below:

Try Googling for it now, though, and it'd return an awful lot of news and blogs fanning the coals of this war (this includes what might just be the new definition of the query, according to Stephen Colbert). But, I digress. At any rate, again, the query would return a link to the Wiltern seating chart. So, what happens when you Google (harhar!) the query on Bing?

Surprise, surprise.

Of course, Bing was not going out without a fight. A little subtlety goes a long way and it could not get any subtle, if not passive-aggressive, than this. But certainly, subtle was not going to make this exciting. But, throw in a war in Twitter and you've got something entirely worth following. Oh, how wonderful to pore over raging emotions bottled up in 140 characters or less.

Dare I ask what's happening?

2010 Year in Review: Justin Bieber and the Weirdly Named Apple Product

For would be authors out there, that title might just sell (despite the rather corny, if not awkward, phrasing of such) if 2010's status updates and searches were taken into consideration. Across all platforms of internet giants, Justin Bieber and the iPad managed to squeeze itself into the consciousness of users having been in 2010's top 10 status updates, tweets, and searches. Oh, what would 2010 have been without these two.

Facebook, Twitter, Google, and Yahoo recently released their year end reviews of what got mentioned the most and what got searched the most in 2010 with interesting and mixed results. So, what did we do in 2010?

We shared news (and acted on it). 2010 had us talking about events that made headlines the world over, such as the BP Oil Spill (#1 in Trending Topics and Yahoo!) and the Haiti Earthquake (#4 in Trending Topics and #5 in Memology). Yahoo claims that it’s the first time that a news story has taken the No. 1 spot. Despite such news not appearing in Google’s Zeitgeist, the Haiti earthquake made waves among Google users as Google claims that “donate to Haiti” was the fastest rising humanitarian aid query in 2010. We were the ones who weren’t fooled by BP’s attempts of cover up (from the press release of Photoshopped images of their workstation to the ban on photos taken from the Gulf) and we knew better than to be mum about it. Certainly, we did not just make ourselves aware of such news. We went out and did something!

We rejoiced at triumphs (and were united by it). We watched closely as drama unfolded right before our eyes and we knew we just had to spread the good news to everyone. The rescue efforts for those trapped in the mine collapse in Chile had us glued to our social networks so much that Facebook claims that keyword use of “miners/mineros” (#8 in Memology) leading to the final rescue spiked 33 times – one for each miner – with the biggest spike during the final rescue! Plus, who could forget the World Cup (#2 in Memology, Trending Topics, and Yahoo!) when we rooted for our own teams and made heroes out of soccer players and, guess what, Pulpo Paul (or Paul the Octopus - #10 in Trending Topics). We even shared the fascination over the Vuvuzela (#5 in Trending Topics). And, I dare say that Justin Beiber (#3 in Zeitgeist, #6 in Memology, #8 in Trending Topics and Yahoo!) might just be the triumph that we lauded (and even giddily gushed over) the most as we tuned into the life of a pop star that started from YouTube and ended up trumping all other mainstream artists the likes of Nicki Minaj (#4 in Zeitgeist), Katy Perry (#7 in Zeitgeist), and Britney Spears (#10 in Yahoo).

We dreamed big dreams (and looked forward to achieving it). Apple and Google had us salivating for their latest creations in 2010 and it kept us talking (and sometimes sourgraping) about the iPhone 4 (#4 in Memology, #6 in Yahoo!), the iPad (#2 in Zeitgeist, #4 in Memology, #6 in Trending Topics), and Android (#7 in Trending Topics). But, more than that, 2010 fuelled our more personal desires, thanks in part to B.o.B.’s hit single “Airplanes” (#9 in Memology) which had us pretending that airplanes in the night sky are like shooting stars and wishing on them just to see what it could bring us in 2011 (#10 in Memology).

Search on this 2011, everyone!
*This post is based on press releases by Facebook, Twitter, Yahoo, and Google. For more insights and drill downs on the matter, visit their respective year in review posts (or any variation of said phrase) in the following links: Facebook Memology, Twitter Year in Review, Yahoo Year in Review, and Google Zeitgeist. +This post is part of the 2010 Year in Review series, a week-long series of blog posts dedicated to reviewing what the world was up to in 2010 in terms of social media and... other things. I'll get back to you on that by the end of this week.

A Merry Digital Christmas to Everyone!

...and, with that, I share with you the Christmas story retold (twice, in this post) in a manner the geeky social media using lot of us could relate to. Enjoy and, again, a blessed Christmas to everyone!



Oh, and while we're at it, why not track Santa with a little help from our friends in NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command) and Google? Don't forget to bring out the cookies. We wouldn't want Santa to slim down one bit. After all, what would the reindeers have for resistance exercises if Santa pares down his weight? Think about that.
---UPDATE: Read more on what happened behind the scenes upon release of the Nativity Story viral video here.