Like anyone else, I cannot help but read into this decision – maybe a little too much. Apple is siding with Microsoft? Really? Does Apple’s choice mean Google has become a bigger rival to Apple than Microsoft? Aren’t Apple and Microsoft the Batman and Joker pairing of the computer/internet world? Computer tech blogs and magazines sure have made it seem that way. I can’t really talk since I have egged on the rivalry just as much.

Back in 1997, Bill Gates invested $150 million in Apple and made Microsoft Office, Internet Explorer and some other development tools available to Macs (a huge shock at the time and a huge game changing move on Microsoft’s end). Gates could have sat back and let Apple be stifled out, but after the investment we saw some of the biggest “races” in the technology world. Laptops, gaming systems, smart phones, and the tablet are representative of just a few instances where Microsoft and Apple were neck and neck, racing to the top. Their competition is what has kept the Internet and technology field changing and evolving.

Were Apple and Microsoft ever at war? It’s hard to say no with “I’m a Mac,” “I’m a PC” commercials all over the place. And yet, it’s hard to say yes when Apple is promoting one of Microsoft’s larger products (Bing). I’d have to say they have something similar to a sibling rivalry. They compete for the top spot but they each know what the other’s strength is. They push each other in their rivalry but know when they need to be on the same team.

If you are still convinced that Apple and Microsoft are and will always be big enemies, then think of the iPhone with Bing as Apple letting only one little Microsoft product into their world. Out of the many products Microsoft has out there, Bing is one of the few not competing with an Apple product. I think that choosing Bing is smart on Apple’s part. They’re paying back Microsoft for that investment way back when, in a smart and strategic way. But using Google for your iPhone is still an option if Bing really bugs you that much.

Microsoft and Yahoo have finally reached an agreement on their long rumored search partnership. The 10 year deal gives Microsoft exclusive access to Yahoo’s search technologies and to the second largest pool of searchers and advertisers.

The deal will allow Microsoft’s Bing to power the joint search engines while Yahoo is the salesmen behind the two, responsible for relationships and sales. Yahoo predicts a $500 million increase in annual operating profit resulting from increase in searchers. Also, they expect a $275 million savings on expenditures every year from no longer investing in their own search technologies.

The money side gives the impression that this will be a great decision for Yahoo, who is trying to earn back losses from recently plumiting stocks. However, stocks have not responded. In fact, some may say that Yahoo’s stock disagrees with the deal between Yahoo and Microsoft. Yahoo’s stock, which you would expect to be up, is down over a dollar and a half this morning after the deal was announced. Another down side that Carol Bartz, Yahoo’s CEO, revealed this morning in a conference call with Microsoft is they will be scaling down their size and so an unspecified number of jobs will be lost.

Microsoft and Yahoo have created a joint website where they have outlined specifics of the deal and given investors a reference page and access to each company’s SEC filings.

Bing has made a big name for itself since its launch back on May 28^th. Just a week after it was opened to the public, the new search engine came in at number two among all search engines.

New statistics from comScore show that Bing is still holding on to its numbers. The latest study compares the last week of May, the first week of June, and the second week of June. Since the last week in May, Microsoft sites have increased from 9% to 12% in share of search result pages. And in the average daily searcher penetration, have increased from 13.7% to 16.7%.

This is all interesting of course, but what about Google’s numbers for the same period? ComScore did not and would not reveal Google’s numbers for the beginning of July, saying those results would be put out at the end of the month with all other Search Engines’ stats. However, according to StatCounter, Google had also increased results in this period. They reported an increase of 0.43%.

Google’s numbers make me think that Bing continues to be on the rise solely due to curiosity and major advertising. But it is pretty obvious that Google isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

Over the weekend, a website called Blind Search was created to compare top search engines. The site was designed for you to enter a search and pick which list of results is the best without knowing which list is which search engines’. The poll was created by an employee of Microsoft so who knows if the results are bias or not. Initial results were in favor of Bing but eventually turned toward Google, by a large margin. Right before the weekend closed, however, Yahoo surged into first.

The poll results are down for now because someone was manipulating the results. One article questions if the site went down because Yahoo finally took the lead. But I question that the lead could have been due to the person playing the system. So now the results are hidden, until the hacking problem gets sorted out. But you can still go test search results between the three engines.

I did a test on results for Keystone Hendersonville, TN, and personally found that I liked the results of Google the most. Yahoo had too many results for the city of Hendersonville and not enough for Keystone. Bing was a close second, in my opinion, because they gave more results for Keystone than the city of Hendersonville, TN, but not as many as Google. Google gave only one result for the city of Hendersonville, all the rest were Keystone related including some events we have had in the past and some newspaper articles featuring Keystone. So, until the poll results are available again, I encourage you to go and play around with different searches and see if you are in fact a Google person, or if you like Bing most, or if really Yahoo is a better suit for you.

Microsoft’s new search engine, Bing, is a hit in Internet-land. Yesterday, Bing slid past Yahoo Search to take second place for search service in the U.S. and in the world. For years Google has led in search services followed by Yahoo Search and MSN in third. Announced on May 28^th, Bing has made a fast move up the search engine totem pole. Only seven days after its debut, StatCounter reported that Bing took 16.28% of searches in the U.S. above Yahoo Search’s 10.22%. However, compared to Google’s 71.17% Bing still has a long way to go.

One survey revealed that 55% of 1000 Google supporters said they would switch to Bing as their main search engine. The sudden peak in popularity does raise a few questions of whether or not Bing will actually last. Like the reportedly ‘huge’ search engine “Cuil” whose status lasted no more than three months tops.

Could it just be lots of talk about the “New Google” that gave it this popularity? It could be due to Internet Explorer 6 using Bing as its new default search engine for its quick-search in the toolbar. Or maybe it is actually possible that Bing will one day beat out Google for the number one position. All-in-all, Bing has made a great initial impression on its competitors. Now we wait to see if it lasts.

Microsoft’s new search engine, Bing, was unveiled Monday, starting the traditional “Compare it to Google” campaign.

First seen Thursday at the All Things Digital Conference, the new Google competitor initially got negative reviews. Comments like “The Bing stands for But It’s Not Google” showed up on blog posts about the new site. By the time Monday rolled around and it became publicly available, the comments started to turn positive. Good thing because Microsoft has plans of spending between 80 and 100 million dollars on advertising!

Something that I personally like about Bing is the left hand column that appears after a search has been executed. Try searching for something very generic, like “Dog” for example. You hit search and articles appear listed, like any other search engine, but there is also a column to the left. There you will find different sub-categories, like types, breeders, health, diseases, etc. This left hand column is Microsoft’s attempt at helping people find exactly what they are searching for. The handy little column also shows related searches and keeps a search history for you.

For a map search, give it your request and it automatically knows your location. The map zooms in to your city and state without having to give a default address. Another interesting feature original to Bing is in its images search page. After you have entered what image you are looking for, you scroll down… and scroll down… and scroll down. More search results are added to the bottom of the page as you scroll down instead of having to click a next page button.

There are many small details you might not have seen in a search engine, giving Microsoft a leg up on Google. Try it out for yourself and see if it makes the cut.