[NeilCJames]

FTA: "We've got a lot of work to do," Mehdi said during his presentation. "It's not like people wake up in the morning, and say, 'Dang, I wish I had another search engine.' "

This is the problem with Bing, not anything technical. Why start a business built around a service that you don't think anyone wants? A product which beats the market leader in one or several clearly defined niches has a chance in the long run, but no one wanted Bing except Microsoft. It was and is a product looking for a market. It would take catastrophic failure at Google for Bing to split the market.

I am not rooting for one team or the other, nor am I against diversity in the market. I just think the quote above reveals something about the product development process at Microsoft that I'd be wary of if I were an employee or investor.

[chris100]

It's like the iPhone (or the Mac, for that matter). No one knew they wanted a better search, until an obviously superior search comes along.

So I wouldn't say it's hopeless for Bing at all. There are so many ways that search could be different from Google's current results...

[erikpukinskis]

Microsoft is in the ecosystem business. The product they provide their customers is an entire software and development ecosystem. They don't have to be best-of-class in every category, but they need to be competitive.