The exceptions are Runnaroo (Google), Startpage (Google), Mojeek, and Gigablast (both use their own index).
¹ https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/services/cognitive-service...
Years ago, I used Google’s search API (written by Nelson Minor). When they canceled the service, I started using Bing search APIs, and never looked back.
So if a million people Bing for ‘Rob Snob is a carpenter ant eater’ and you type Rob Snob is ... it will dutifully suggest ‘a carpenter ant eater’ unlike google which soft censors such things.
A great example of this would be that they stopped autosuggesting the word torrent at some point in time despite returning torrent results if you searched for it explicitly.
They stopped suggesting, but didn't stop indexing.
This is meant without snark. It's probably the first alternative people will go to if they're wary of the level of tracking Google is capable of.
Google has Google Analytics, YouTube, libraries, or even fonts in almost every single webpage. They have billions of email users, which means all human email users can have a profile built about them without having any relationship with Google.
If that weren't enough, they have a near-monopoly on low-cost smartphone OS installs and are a massive chunk of all installs. Android is the most-used operating system.
The scope of Google's reach is breathtaking and inescapable.
Microsoft can only track via Windows, which is diminishingly important to consumers as Android wins the OS wars across platforms.
Also, unlike Google, Microsoft doesn't rely on AdTech and tracking for its survival. Google has no businesses that can replace tracking for them.
Well, it advertises to you in its start menu and even has scummy ads in its built-in browser homepage. And it makes you log in with a Skype/Outlook/Windows account to install Windows 10 (maybe you can bypass it by avoiding wifi during installation? I didn't check).
Whether or not it needs these for its survival doesn't seem like much of a distinction, and possibly even more of a fuck-you that it doesn't need to do this for its survival. In fact, that it does this at the operating system level is worse to me than it being done when I use applications that work by talking to remote servers because you simply can't escape it. Meanwhile I can simply avoid Google products.
The HN discourse around Microsoft these days really just shows that Microsoft's attempts to buy back goodwill with things like VS Code must be working. Often we talk here as if Bing is some indie underdog.
Windows as a dev box is a tiny niche use-case that is over-represented on HN.
>Meanwhile I can simply avoid Google products.
That maybe true for you, but for most people, its far easier to avoid Windows than Google.
Of course it is. If you let someone into your home, and one of them is going to die if they don't steal food from you, which person is more likely to steal food from you?
Google's business model literally does not allow it to be ethical.
> The HN discourse around Microsoft these days really just shows that Microsoft's attempts to buy back goodwill with things like VS Code must be working.
I see a lot of people with your point of view. Are you still influenced by your perceptions of Microsoft from the Ballmer and Gates days?
I was also in the industry at that time, and today's Microsoft is just a different company. It's leadership is different, most of the Baller/Gates people have left, and their policies are completely different.
VS Code is great, but Microsoft isn't doing anything to lock you into it. I don't use it at all. TypeScript and .NET are both IDE-agnostic, for example.
Companies aren't people. They don't have consistent cultures, personalities, or beliefs. Microsoft sucked in the past, but they're the only large tech company that I'm not actively angry at on a daily basis anymore.
Office 365? The thing that a whole host of businesses rely upon for email, spreadsheets, presentations?
MS has just as much of an opportunity as Amazon does for spying on its cloud customers through Azure too.
Google is more consumer focused. MS has a good split between consumer, business, and gaming - those combined will rival Google.
Their actual paid services (G Suite aka Workspace, Google One, etc.) are not their bread and butter, so tracking us is an existential issue for them.
> Google is more consumer focused.
No, they're not! See above. I would call them one of the least consumer-focused companies out there. They don't follow through with products, and most of their products aren't even for consumers! They're for advertisers.
They have a pretty picture on the front page each day. That was the argument a client gave me once why she used Bing.
I am not suggesting only use google because google is awful, but Bing shouldnt buy users, it should actually be good to get them.
I'm estimating that I've received somewhere between $250 and $300 in rewards during that time.
What competition has suffered because of the existence of Bing?
I think this is the first time I've been accused of killing competition by using a product with 3% market share.
> they'll take your peanuts back
I've already cashed out; they can't take that back.
When they stop paying me to use their product, I'll probably go to Duck Duck Go.
And as far as getting back their their money, you would still not be parted with your cash, they'd just use/sell your data and cover their loss from paying you in the first place. If I were you I'd continue to get paid to use their service, it's the best deal you can get right now especially that Bing is not likely to overtake Google any time soon.
Never seen either - I use Firefox as my primary browser and 95% DDG, 5% Google for search.
I know DuckDuckGo is supposedly private. And has bangs & cheat sheets. But what is Bing's competitive edge? Heard it's good at images.