Dear Bing,

As the title of this post suggests,  this letter contains an idea that should help to sharply reduce Google’s influence and quickly build Bing’s share.  (Idea outlined below.)

Let me say from the start that I have absolutely no economic interest in Microsoft or Google,  but I believe Google’s growing power as the world’s window to the web poses a threat to the public and must be cut down.

Google is aggressively gunning for your core Office and OS business.   While it is not yet clear how successful they will be,  it is abundantly clear that they will not give up easily and have the resources to continue this battle indefinitely.    

As Google has shown no restraint in attacking the heart of your business,  Microsoft must be equally aggressive in attacking theirs.    As I mention below,  Google has developed some powerful enemies in various content verticals.  Those enemies would be your quick allies and together you could land Google a powerful blow.     In addition to the loss of traffic and Pay Per Click revenue,  a well publicized attack could hurt Google’s stock price which would reduce their appetite for and ability to continue the war which they themselves began.

It will be very interesting to observe Google’s reaction once the onslaught begins.  Unlike Microsoft,  they have little experience defending their franchise and have never fought off an attack on their core business.

I know you have launched initiatives such as the Yahoo partnership/Facebook etc. and have made some minor progress recently.,   but I tell you clearly it is not enough. The deals should be exclusive like cable or satellite TV, partial deals on real time feeds will be insufficient and lead to mediocre results.    If you do not act quickly you will ensure that Bing/Yahoo will continue to play David to Google’s Goliath,   but in this version of that ancient tale-  the Giant wins and then merrily continues to stomp on your heart,  good-bye Office.  In fact the money you’re paying for Yahoo now would probably be better spent paying contents holders.

If you agree that this idea is worthy,   I recommend you start this campaign today,  tomorrow is too late.  Based on your current initiatives,  I assume you have no better options on your mental table.

Idea Outline-

(Although this is simply an outline,  the key concept is strong, and it should be easy to flesh it out into something more comprehensive and actionable.)  I developed this idea based on a video that I originally found on TechCrunch,  links below.)

Bing approaches a number of major players in specific content verticals,  e.g. newspapers,  social networks,  etc.,  and offers to pay them an amount similar to or exceeding the revenue they currently derive from Google sourced organic traffic.

In exchange,  these new partners agree to have their contents removed from Google’s index, Rudolph Murdoch has suggested he would.

As Google looses substantial chunks of high value contents,  it’s users begin to defect to the site that has what they are looking for,  in this case Bing.  (Naturally this effort should be accompanied by PR/advertising announcing the new Bing exclusives.)

Some of the possible content verticals are in dire straits and already have an antagonistic relationship with Google,  e.g. Newspapers.   So these kinds of contents partners would be naturally receptive to such an overture.

Many social networks are looking for ways to monetize,  and this solution would be naturally attractive to them.

It would be especially useful to use these methods in markets where Google is not king, e.g. Japan (your partner Yahoo is top.) and China.

Sample Content Verticals

• Major news and magazine sites.
• Social Networks.
• Video Portals
• TV/Movie delivery sites, e.g. Hulu etc.

* There is also a lot of unhappiness among many major Google adword customers in regards to their prices and the opacity of their auctions.  Many of these advertisers would be happy to have a powerful alternative to Google.

Points of Concern

Scalability (Global)-  Each market has different content leaders, as an example Mixi which is strong in Japan is meaningless in the U.S.   So covering every vertical in every market might be prohibitively expensive.
As far as I am concerned,  this is just a matter of prioritization.  Choose the markets and verticals you want and then go after them relentlessly.

Key Staff-  It is highly recommend that Bing hire a new leader to work on this initiative.  While Microsoft has a deep bench of smart talanted managers,  they generally lack passion.  Without the necessary passion and deep hunger to succeed this idea will most certainly fail.

To Kill a Google Bird (Open Letter To Bing)