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Microsoft Bing accused of plagiarism

telegraph.co.uk — Kayak, a website that specialises in finding the cheapest flights, claims that Microsofts new search engine, Bing, is so similar that it is confusing customers.

Who dugg this? Made popular Jun 27, 2009

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  • Kakumeikeahi, on 06/26/2009, -9/+88But, they both have a text bar to type into!? ***** this is confusing.
  • undervalued, on 06/26/2009, -3/+55They are identical! I can tell by the pixels.
  • alpha88, on 06/26/2009, -20/+59http://www.bing.com/
    http://www.kayak.com/

    I count two similarities. A search field, and the colour orange.
  • dmcaudio, on 06/26/2009, -6/+44i rounded my corners, thus anyone else who rounds their corners are copying me.
  • shadedecho, on 06/26/2009, -5/+35So, has Kayak patented or trademarked the use of sliders for setting ranges on search items? If so, lots of other sites are screwed too, including ones I've worked on where I was explicitly told to immitate Kayak's UI paradigm for sliders on ranges.

    I would, if I were Kayak, take it as amusing and flattering that Microsoft considered Kayak's approach worthy of immitation. Besides, has Google complained that Bing's search results formatting looks QUITE similar to their's?

    There's a fine line between ripping off some site's logo or IP, and just immitating UI and User Experience that works well. I'm not sure which this is, but I wouldn't call it blatantly over-the-line from what I see.

    This is a slippery slope if we say that Kayak owns that particular visual style of controls, even in the travel industry space, as we're talking about fundamental building blocks of user interfaces that are being given intellectual property rights.
  • kalleanka, on 06/27/2009, -6/+34You are wrong, it's not http://www.bing.com/, but rather http://www.bing.com/travel/ that is a look alike.

    First I was also "yeah whatever, they are completely different", but upon closer inspection, yes, Bing is extremely similar to Kayak.com.
  • lodwar, on 06/26/2009, -5/+31Dugg for exposing me to Kayak
  • dafin0, on 06/26/2009, -2/+25you have to be joking right, i mean no one can really be this pathetic? this is just sad dude
  • juankovo, on 06/27/2009, -2/+211) Be a little company
    2) Sue a big company
    3) Get media exposure
    4) Profit!
  • HappyScrappy, on 06/27/2009, -4/+23I use kayak a lot, and that's exactly the same. Seriously if you hadn't told me it wasn't Kayak I would have guessed otherwise.

    I'd be a bit surprised if anyone who used kayak wouldn't think the same.
  • inactive, on 06/26/2009, -0/+17Exactly. Patent law/enforcement is inescapably screwed up.

    * Companies patent ideas or technologies that become widespread before the patent ink dries
    * Companies patent ideas or technologies that are already in use, but are unrecognized by technology-illiterate patent officers
    * Many tech patents are so general that they cover a vast array of applications
    * Companies have to sue to defend their patents or else they'll lose them
    * Companies sue over patents just to make money or to intimidate the competition

    The whole situation has become rediculous.
  • DaryLintheDark, on 06/27/2009, -4/+20pretty much any airline or travel broker uses the same setup. looks like another case of money grubbing executives
  • Norweed, on 06/27/2009, -2/+18The BING travel site is simply a rebranded version of farecast.com. Actually farecast.com redirects there. While Kayak is a nice consolidator it doesn't have the awesome predictions that farecast/bing does. On this one I'm siding with MS.

    PS: farecast has been around for a fairly long time it's not like they ripped off Kayak over the weekend.
  • artissco, on 06/27/2009, -4/+19this is just a marketing trick from Kayak :D I even didn't know what Kayak was till now
  • alpha88, on 06/27/2009, -1/+16Well, *****.
  • canudiggit123, on 06/27/2009, -1/+15bastard.
  • maxvette, on 06/26/2009, -2/+16Sounds like Kayak is about to get a buyout offer
  • nubnub, on 06/27/2009, -3/+16Sorry, your search has expired or failed.
  • jackh4, on 06/26/2009, -9/+22If you look at the travel sections they do look fairly similar:

    http://tinyurl.com/mkadzj
    http://www.kayak.co.uk/r/HPGJEx

  • rnawky, on 06/27/2009, -0/+13I love when companies use the phrase "confuse customers"

    In reality, it's their own god damn staff that gets confused.
  • Mship, on 06/27/2009, -8/+20Im sorry but they do not look similiar to the point where plagiarism should even be considered.

    Hell if you want to take that layout and say one is plagiarizing the other then wouldnt every travel brokerage site say the same thing.
  • nosecohn, on 06/26/2009, -6/+18Kayak is great. I use it all the time and I was shocked to see Bing's travel search results page in this article, because it really does look similar to Kayak's. That being said, there's probably no grounds for a legal case.
  • hypografik, on 06/27/2009, -0/+10I've been a long time user of sidestep.com and now I'm wondering who ripped who.

    Compare http://www.sidestep.com and http://www.kayak.com

    EDIT: Ok, it seems they have merged and are both the same company.
  • Tubal22, on 06/27/2009, -3/+11Uncomfortably similar.
  • fuzzynyanko, on 06/27/2009, -0/+8It was weird finding out that Microsoft founded Expedia, then sold it off only to buy Farecast later.
  • inactive, on 06/27/2009, -2/+10oh boy...here we go again...Good old Astral who has no worries about making himself look foolish for our enjoyment.

    Hey, Astral...did you twitter this? I mean..you CLAIM that you never round up your Pathetic Posse to digg up all anti-MS stories...but then I proved that you were a pathetic liar with this link...

    http://twitter.com/AstralKnight

    So..did you?
  • inactive, on 06/26/2009, -6/+14I am going to delete FF off of all of the computers in my lab and switch them to IE6 in honor of the stupidity of that comparison.
  • r00fus, on 06/27/2009, -0/+7Nope. Microsoft already bought their competitor, Farecast.
    Farecast was cool, then it became farecast.live.com :-(

    Kayak has a more seamless interface, though.
  • egcarter, on 06/27/2009, -0/+7In the 2-3 years I've been using Farecast (Bing Travel), that's what it has looked like. I dunno Kayak...
    And why didn't you say anything until now?
  • Norweed, on 06/27/2009, -2/+9What kind of idiots digg down a post simply posting a fact....Wow.
  • ZimbuTheMonkey, on 06/27/2009, -5/+12Accusing Microsoft of plagiarism?

    C'mon Kayak, we know you are just trying to seem hip and cool.
  • FKnight, on 06/27/2009, -0/+6You must be new here.
  • elpresidente408, on 06/27/2009, -3/+9The fine line is crossed when a design is so similar that person has a reasonable chance of mistaking one company for another. Try scrolling both pages down halfway after performing a flight search. I use Kayak all the time, and honestly if someone showed me the Bing page, I would assume it was Kayak's results.

    Bing: http://tinyurl.com/peop6o
    Kayak: http://www.kayak.com/r/E8K86I
  • donjo, on 06/27/2009, -1/+7At the time of purchase or were you going back to see how much your tickets were after discovering kayak?
  • stevebor1, on 06/27/2009, -0/+5$$
  • inactive, on 06/27/2009, -3/+8you are joking right? There is nothing to defend.

    Astral twittered you to come to this thread, didn't he? Or was it one of his posts on random Linux vrigin web site forums that brought you here?
  • stevebor1, on 06/27/2009, -0/+5So when Bing Flights was Live was FareCast, this was not an issue?
  • Domthedude001, on 06/27/2009, -2/+7You forgot the "???" step.
  • pustulio, on 06/27/2009, -0/+5dot coooommmmmm
  • Rudegar, on 06/27/2009, -1/+6it's like accusing the fox of stealing chickens
    or of not being fair and biased :P
  • nubnub, on 06/27/2009, -2/+7"In December 2007, SideStep was sold to Kayak.com for about $180m."
  • eXcommunicate, on 06/27/2009, -2/+6A lot of you guys are being daft. "Look nothing alike!"? What's wrong with you guys? The Bing travel page looks exactly like the Kayak one, so somebody copied the other. It's the bar on the left that's the kicker. Same exact layout, so blatant. Having said that, I don't really care. But you guys saying, "Ooooo, rounded corners!1!!" are just being daft.
  • fuzzynyanko, on 06/27/2009, -2/+6Oddly enough, Microsoft founded Expedia.
  • renanrrinaldi, on 06/27/2009, -1/+5Is this Digg? I'm confused now as it has a search bar too!
  • pdileepa, on 06/27/2009, -0/+4bing.com/travel was preceded by farecast.live.com was preceded by farecast.com. The UI has remained pretty much the same.

    http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=farecast&g ...

    Edit: This PC Mag article from early 2008 shows that Kayak and Farecast had some similar UI controls even then:
    http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2281679,00.as ...

    Slideshow:
    http://www.pcmag.com/slideshow_viewer/0,1205,l%253 ...

  • inactive, on 06/27/2009, -1/+5ouch
  • stuffradio, on 06/27/2009, -0/+4Digg is too close to the verb Dig, which means... to dig!
  • FKnight, on 06/27/2009, -1/+4Obligatory "Micro$oft"
  • SoundJudgment, on 06/27/2009, -1/+4Nah. Kayak's fare-list is cheaper.
  • mrBitch, on 06/27/2009, -1/+4Compare kayak.com with Bing's travel section, and look again :
    http://www.bing.com/travel/

    PS : just noticed the big ad image under Bing's "travel topics" section... it's a picture of Michael Jackson with the text :
    " Places for a Michael Jackson pilgrimage "

    WTF?
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