RSSBing vs. Google rematch after Microsoft upgrades explicit filtering
By Scott M. Fulton, III | Published June 15, 2009, 12:45 PM
A few weeks ago, in our ongoing series of duels between the reigning champion search engine Google and the contender "decision engine" Bing, we gave Bing the edge in a battle of the image filters: With both search engines' explicit image filtering turned on, we were able to explore a very sensitive topic -- breast cancer -- and have Bing yield sensible and respectful, but sometimes graphic, images without presenting offensive content.
Since that time, as we reported last week, Microsoft has implemented a very practical concept for helping individuals and businesses to ensure filtering takes place -- this after complaints were raised about how ridiculously simple it is for any user to turn filtering off in both Bing and Google. As Bing General Manager Mike Nichols announced on Friday, the thumbnails of images which Bing deems to be of a sensitive nature will be sent through a specific URL, explicit.bing.net. That way, users can take extra steps to filter questionable content.
The concept harkens back to the ICANN debate over whether to deploy a .XXX top-level domain name. Many opponents of that measure became supporters once they understood how easy it would become for schools, universities, and households to block any content sent through that TLD...though there weren't enough converts in the end to pass the measure.
Bing's new URL method creates an unavoidable marker for spotting stuff that Microsoft's servers might not be sure about. Using this marker for your own benefit is a pretty simple affair -- you do not need a third party tool. For example, in Internet Explorer 8, from the Tools menu (on the lower right of the toolbar area in the new layout), select Internet Options, then from the dialog box, click on the Content tab. Under Content Advisor, click on Settings, then from the Content Advisor dialog box (Microsoft always puts settings within at least two, if not four, layers of dialogs) click on the Approved Sites tab. Then under Allow this website type explicit.bing.net and click on Never. Then to finalize your choices click OK, then OK again.
With Firefox 3.0.11, there's fewer steps, and one strange little twist we can't yet explain. From the Tools menu, select Options, then click on the Content tab. Beside Load images automatically click on Exceptions. Then in the dialog box under Address of web site type explicit.bing.net and click on either Block or Disable (for some reason, similar builds of Firefox 3.0.11 running on different systems may show one or the other, but they both have the same purpose). Then click on Close followed by OK.
In Betanews tests this morning, we first wondered whether strict filtering on both the server and client sides would diminish the respectful treatment Bing gave to the subject of "breast cancer examination." If certain images and videos had been screened, they might turn up under the "explicit" URL, and go missing on the results page, even if they weren't actually offensive.
Thankfully, it didn't change the Bing results at all. Videos that happened to show the human breast in a discussion of health and well-being, remained right where they were before.
Can thumbnail images be filtered from Google in a similar way? Not yet. Right now, all thumbnails that appear on Google's search criteria are sourced through images.google.com, and there's nothing we've noticed about the "texture" of these URLs that a client-side filter could grab onto to distinguish potentially offensive from probably non-offensive content.
Next: Sifting the good Britney from the bad Britney...
Scott, any word on the contest yet? AFAIK, none of us have received any emails yet.
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|Same here PC - I Have not heard anything from them either.
And thanks for the update because I was beginning to wonder if it was just me.
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|Having read Betanews for years and only recently signed up because of the moronic posting taking place on the winners page, I can say that ,on the whole, BN Staff is impartial and I am impressed with how they are trying to change some things (i.e.- benchmark testing of software which is much more difficult than testing of hardware). Do I always agree? of course not but it would be a pretty dull world if everyone believed as I or whiteReabbit or Fatty believes. So I give credit to BN for experimenting and see no bias. I wish I could say the same about some posters who frankly get tiresome very quickly. Betanews only will work if both sides continue to look at themselves (and I include myself) and think of better ways to present the debate. BN is doing that. some of the poster are not and as a consequence, you dragged down BN.
Finally, in science, it is a given that the work of one is built upon the shoulders or work of others, that is what is called innovation and progress.
On this particular column, it only makes sense that a re-testing of Bing ("BAda.Bing.com") be done with the change MS made. If you look at any type of filtering system there does tend to be a "throwing the baby out with the bathwater" approach and the test done by BN made sense. If the results had been different, Mr. Fulton would of said that and, of course taken heat. the world isn't B&W. More knowledge and progress is made when we explore the grey.
To some posters I would say at least before you type or open your mouth to speak and claim your 15 minutes of anonymous fame, at least let your brain start working and give the neurons a chance to fire up.
To BN staff- thank you for taking a chance and beginning to explore the "grey" area. To some posters, Have an MRI done on your own brain. Point out differences of opinions, that's fine but no one gains from the bias attacks of anonymous posters who feel free to bring their own agenda or bias to the table on a table that is continuously evolving while posters are not.
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|Hmmm...let me guess...you work for Microsoft? Just seems to me they've done here what they always do-- take other people's ideas, add a few tricks and present them as something new. When they really do something revolutionary, let me know. Until then, I'll stick with Firefox or Google. THEY presented real, viable options over that dreck Internet Exporer.
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|Just like Bing presents the only real, viable option over Google. Sorry, but the argument can be done both ways... just as Microsoft dominated the browser market with a sub-par product (at least in the last few years... IE 3 was an improvement over Navigator back in the day), Bing s***s the paradigm from a monopolist force (Google) in the search market. It is not the first, it is not the most original, but it is one alternative that is both pleaseing to the eye, and seems to understand that search capabilities alone are not enough these days.
It is not a bad thing, if you think about it. I know that Microsoft hasn't been the best corporate citizen in the past, but if anything, it has forced other companies to get creative and find ways to challenge them. The one who benefits is the consumer. So I say: bring it on Microsoft, make Google uncomfortable and force them to improve their search engine, so that it can be more user friendly and understand search queries better.
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|You know what's strangely beautiful about this business some days is how things balance out...Within a five-day period, I can be accused of "working for Microsoft" on one side, and being an "anti-Microsoft demagogue" on the other.
Have we become completely incapable of pointing out shades of grey as anything other than "black" or "white?"
-SF "Getting Greyer All Over the Place" 3
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|Scott, I totally agree with you.
If microsoft getting serious about search engine makes Google less complacent about the one they have and forces them to innovate more, the end user should win, right?
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|Sure is odd how the vast majority of stories on this site are about how good Microsoft products are, and paid Microsoft shills like that Levi guy post their Microsoft marketing materials on how Apple is not good and Microsoft is just as good or not better.
Where is your series on Snow Leopard? Where are the stories pointing out how Windows 7 is the rebranding of Vista SP2.5? Where are the stories pointing out the fantasy of Microsoft's computer shopper ads? Yep. did not think so.
How about a story of Microsoft's use of LMG for various whisper campaigns against Google, ODF, Apple, and many more? How about a story on how Microsoft totally and unethically abused the ISO process to get their proprietary MSOOXML format passed?
How about a story on the disappearing ASUS Android Laptop at Computex? Wonder why Microsoft made them pull it from the show?
Instead, we get Microsoft marketing materials regurgitated. The whole Microsoft is just as good or almost as good as Apple and Google whisper campaign is getting old. Anyone with half a brain can see right through it.
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|Hey - just because Microsoft is unutterably evil doesn't mean they're bad people...
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|Fatty,
It amazes me how you can think Apple is such a saint with their closed open source operating system stolen from all the hard work of open source developers. I think a series on Snow Leopard would be great for you. So you could realize it is just a rebranding of Leopard with more features.
How can someone hate a company that brings tons of $$$ in to our country? They are as evil if not less evil than your beloved Apple. You just enjoy paying for everything you do with Apple.
I could almost understand if you were a Linux only geek. But to rip on Microsoft when Apple and Google have the share much of the same practices is just ignorant.
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|"Where is your series on Snow Leopard?"
Because there is no public beta/RC.
"Where are the stories pointing out how Windows 7 is the rebranding of Vista SP2.5?"
First it was SP1, then it was SP2, now it's SP 2.5. It gets old. Why wasn't Windows XP called Windows 2000 SP"whatever"? Oh, right... Same platform, different version. Hey, why isn't Snow Leopard called Tiger SP3?
"Where are the stories pointing out the fantasy of Microsoft's computer shopper ads?"
What fantasies? What was untrue about them? That they cost, on average, less than Macs?
Nope, did not think so.
"How about a story of Microsoft's use of LMG for various whisper campaigns against Google, ODF, Apple, and many more?"
All those campaigns... and I bet you have proof for every one of those, right? *laughing* It's called PR, and just like Apple doesn't need to pay you to be a jackass, Microsoft doesn't need to pay me to point out your stupidity.
"How about a story on how Microsoft totally and unethically abused the ISO process to get their proprietary MSOOXML format passed?"
Where the hell were you? You do realize that was, in today's society, "ages" ago, right? BN had *tons* of stories on the ODF/OOXML...and most of them were pro ODF.
"How about a story on the disappearing ASUS Android Laptop at Computex? Wonder why Microsoft made them pull it from the show? "
You mean this one? Uh-huh...
Where do you come up with this stuff? I mean, do you *ever* have a clue what you're talking about, or are you actually capable of rational thought on occasion? Lacking any evidence whatsoever for the latter, I am sure we can all safely assume the former...
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