Google’s Brin gunning for Bing

 

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By Stuart Turton / Simon Aughton

Posted on 15 Jun 2009 at 11:28

Google co-founder Sergey Brin is assembling a team of top engineers to counteract the threat of Microsoft’s Bing, according to a The New York Post report.

The Google executive is apparently concerned about the potential impact of Microsoft’s new “decision engine”, which is being backed by a marketing budget of up to $100 million.

Brin has taken a hands-on role to help Google raise its game and see off the Microsoft threat, according to the Post

“New search engines have come and gone in the past 10 years, but Bing seems to be of particular interest to Sergey,” a Google insider told the newspaper, which adds that he is taking particular interest in how Bing’s search algorithm differs from Google’s.

Figures released last week suggested that it was Yahoo, rather than Google, that had most to fear from Microsoft’s search resurgence. Bing overtook Yahoo to claim second place in the worldwide search market within a week of its launch, although it remains to be seen whether Bing can sustain that early success.

Bing remains a country mile behind Google, however, accounting for 5.62% of worldwide searches, compared to Google’s 87.62% market share.

A spokesman for Google denied to comment on reports of Brin’s elite search team, claiming that the company “always has a team working on improving search”.