RSSBing vs. Google rematch after Microsoft upgrades explicit filtering
By Scott M. Fulton, III | Published June 15, 2009, 12:45 PM
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Another potential benefit -- at least some folks will think it's a benefit, others might not -- that Microsoft's Nichols brought up last Friday, is the capability for a business' auditing software to flag the word "explicit" when determining who's receiving content from what source. Of course, that assumes that everything that turns up on the "explicit" URL is truly actionable, something worth pulling an employee into the office for a little discussion.
As we've said before, it doesn't take much ingenuity for any Web user to find explicit content if that's what he wants; the only question is, are the roadblocks mildly effective? When we gave Bing a search term that is, in itself, inoffensive but which might generate questionable results (for instance, a certain actress' name), Bing asked us whether we wanted to turn safe search off -- making the whole filtering bypass concept easier than ever before.
But with filtering turned on at the client side, even bypassing that anthill-sized roadblock results only in an image or video page full of mostly black boxes. On the Videos page, the same search with filtering turned off showed that those items which had been blacked out were clearly candidates for the "potentially offensive" column.
However, there was one other way to check...When we hovered our mouse over the black boxes, the videos played in place anyway. Apparently the images are being filtered through the "explicit" URL, but the videos are not. Microsoft might have wanted to check this out before unleashing this version of filtering as a feature.
There's also a few problems with regard to some of the greyer areas. For example, what if that actress happens to be Britney Spears? As some will be aware, there have been some...unfortunate photos taken of the alleged pop star, in of all places, the drop-off site of a public courthouse. Client-side filtering does result in many of these photos, plus some others that may be in the "risqué" category, to appear as white spaces. And unlike the case with videos, clicking on these white spaces does not result in showing the photos. However, further down the page, the various photo shoots in question (there were more than one) do leave some residue that the explicit filter unfortunately missed.
This is an important subject, because young children may very well be compelled to search for Britney Spears -- she's still a household name -- whereas they might not search for Ginger Lynn (although some may do so now that we revealed her name). The fact that Bing is trying to make the use of search more reliable for parents to entrust with their children, is gratifying and one reason why we're not going to revoke Bing's win over Google on this particular heat. But there's still more effort that has to be done, evidently, to give parents full confidence in this feature.
THE ENTIRE BING VS. GOOGLE SHOWDOWN:
- Bing vs. Google face-off, round 1: Bing 2, Google 1 after 3 heats
- Bing vs. Google face-off, round 2: Bing 2, Google 2 after 4 heats
- Bing vs. Google face-off, round 3: Bing 2, Google 3 after 5 heats
- Bing vs. Google face-off, round 4: Bing 3, Google 3 after 6 heats
- Bing vs. Google face-off, round 5: Google beats Bing 4:3 after 7 heats
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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