Microsoft bytes back: Kogan removed from Bing

After taxing IE7 users last month, Kogan has disappeared from Bing search results. Picture: Kogan Source: Supplied

IF YOU'RE expecting to find Kogan online using Bing, think again.

You're going to have to try another search engine.

Online electronics retailer, Kogan claims Microsoft has removed its website from Bing's search results as punishment for discriminating against consumers who use Internet Explorer 7.

Last month the website announced it would be taxing people that used IE7 to make purchases from its website, calling the browser antiquated and "long passed its use-by date".

A quick Bing search will deliver search results for Kogan's Wikipedia page, Facebook and Twitter, but the official Kogan.com is nowhere to be seen.

In a blog post on its website, CEO and founder Ruslan Kogan wrote that he was "baffled and shocked" to learn it had been removed from Microsoft's organic search results.

"We never waged war against Microsoft over IE7, we simply wanted people to upgrade their web browsers ? we even mentioned many times in the media how the latest versions of Internet Explorer comply with the latest web standards and are suitable browsers," Kogan wrote.

"We hope Microsoft were not too offended by what we did with the IE7 tax and this is just a temporary glitch."

Microsoft has denied tampering with its own search results.

A spokesperson for Microsoft told News.com.au that Bing does not manually alter search results.

"The ranking of our results is done in automated manner through our algorithm which can sometimes lead to unexpected results," the spokesperson said.

"We always work to maintain the integrity of our results to ensure that they are not editorialised; our results come from our algorithms not from humans. For example, if a site contains certain characters, words or phrases, that site may rank higher in a query for those words or phrases.

"As long as retailers follow Microsoft adCenter terms and conditions, then their results will go through the same automated manner."

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/newscomaumostpopularndm/~3/BWS8GydEC0Q/story01.htm

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