In my opinion there is a difference. A webpage author links to another as an act of conscious recommendation. The one who added the link added it for the sole

In my opinion there is a difference. A webpage author links to another as an act of conscious recommendation. The one who added the link added it for the sole purpose of others to make use of it. It would be a stretch to claim that Google serves search results for its competitor to make use of. Next is the issue that Bing is not scraping Google but using user clicks. But here users are just a means to an end of scraping. That someone is doing an act by way of third parties does not take away from the fact that one is still doing it. I am all for having someone give Google the run for its money, but I want that to be driven by genuine technological innovation. Not by being a El-Cheapo knockoff of the market leader. Some search engines are beating Google in niche markets by being better than Google, which is excellent. I dont think, Bing re-serving Google results, brings any innovative pressures to the market. Especially when you know that whatever innovations one brings it will get replicated by piggy backing. I wouldnt want to be in a business where this is true. What worries me is that the main players will start engaging more in how to inconvenience each other rather than building better products. I have been fearful of the fact that Microsoft would someday tweak IE so that Google does not work well on it. They have done this for a few other sites but haven't done it to Google. I think initially in fear of starting a race, but now with other browsers beginning to rule the roost thats moot.