For example, searching for Linux in Bing shows Microsoft product placement within the search suggestions. Though this lets every IT professional grin from ear to ear, it could have major impact on “not so professional” people when they want to see what “this so called Linux” is about and rely on search suggestions.

Google instead shows suggestions that are pretty useful, when someone wants to get in touch with Linux.
In general it seems that Google tries to avoid product placement within the suggestions. Searching for “reader” for example doesn’t show any related content to Google Reader.

The same applies to the search for SQL. On the Bing hand it shows product placement for Microsoft’s SQL related products, Google on its hand offers way more universal suggestions.

Don’t get me wrong. Although I’m an open source addict, I’m not a Microsoft hater. I’d actually use Microsoft software in several areas if I have to. SQL Server 2008 for example is an awesome piece of software, but when it comes to the Internet they still seem to struggle.
If I’m searching for something I want to get to the result and not being bothered by subtle advertising and I definitely want to get a proper, almost universally valid search result, of course. Google makes this just right and I guess that’ll last a couple more years since there’s still no real competitor in the race. They still claim that search is their main product, of course.

Google’s power is simplicity, Microsoft makes it too complicated. It’s that easy.

The background picture at bing.com that changes every 24 hours and comes with several overlays to get additional information is a really nice idea to pass time and actually makes Bing more pleasant. How often do I browse the wikipedia clicking from one article to another to learn stuff I haven’t even heard of last week? Two times a week at least.
But why do I have to install Silverlight when I want to go back to last days picture? Couldn’t this have been done without the need to install additional software? This way it’s kinda obvious that Microsoft wants to push its alternative to Flash through their search engine and as I said, it’s all about the results and not about binding people to its own solutions.

The Internet is all about interoperability. Something that Microsoft obviously still don’t get and that’s sad because a little more competition in the search engine business would be quite nice.