Microsoft’s search engine Bing [originaltext] Google is one of the smartest,

Google is one of the smartest, most innovative companies in the world, but in its core business— online search—it’s being routinely shown up by Microsoft’s third-place search engine, Bing. (7) Bing is a surprisingly fast-moving, innovative product—and it’s forcing Google to play catch-up time and time again.
    Years ago, for example, Google set itself apart from other search engines by focusing on making its homepage load faster than everyone else’s, including a very simple design with a white background. Then, last year, Microsoft launched Bing with a colorful, photography-driven design. When Bing’s look became popular, Google launched a feature to enable its users to make Google look colorful like that, too. (8) For a day, Google even replaced its default background with an image, mimicking Bing’s look. Google users were not impressed with the decision, however. They howled, and Google quickly reverted back to the plain white look. (7) The decision to change its layout and then to undo the change shows that Google is feeling the pressure of Microsoft going hard into the search space.