Comment by monooso
18 hours ago
Cost, presumably. From the article:
> Microsoft spent roughly $100 billion over 20 years on Bing and still holds single-digit share. If Microsoft cannot close the gap, no startup can do it alone.
18 hours ago
Cost, presumably. From the article:
> Microsoft spent roughly $100 billion over 20 years on Bing and still holds single-digit share. If Microsoft cannot close the gap, no startup can do it alone.
Wouldn't it be nice if Microsoft opened the bing index for all.
Don't they? DDG and Kagi use it. I would think you have to pay money but it does seem like they're willing to get partners.
edit: this is wrong
This is incorrect. Kagi does not use the Bing index, as detailed in the article:
> Bing: Their terms didn’t work for us from the start. Microsoft’s terms prohibited reordering results or merging them with other sources - restrictions incompatible with Kagi’s approach. In February 2023, they announced price increases of up to 10x on some API tiers. Then in May 2025, they retired the Bing Search APIs entirely, effective August 2025, directing customers toward AI-focused alternatives like Azure AI Agents.
Now that you mention it...
It's odd that Microsoft hasn't aggressively pushed for "openness". That's in the usual playbook for attacking a market leader.
(And then pull up the ladder once you've become king of hill.)
Microsoft will probably never topple Google, absent anti-monopolistic enforcement. But they can certainly attack Google's profits.