I saw a recent article that said that for every $3 that Microsoft is spending in advertising costs to promote Bing, it is making only about $1. That is burning money at an ridiculous rate, even if you have as much money as Microsoft. That same article indicates that if Microsoft continues to spend Bing money at the same rate it will lose $3 billion.

I found the article fascinating. I also understand that, if Microsoft wants to challenge Google, it has to spend a lot of money to do it. A lot of money right now, may lead to increased revenues later. However, I am not sure that Microsoft can really spend Google into the ground.

A recent post by Dan Savage on Slog, however, recently put this into perspective for me. Savage said:

Did you see Source Code? There’s a moment in the movie where Jake Gyllenhaal’s character—about to be burn to death in a fiery explosion for the seventh or eight time that morning—does a quick web search on someone’s smart phone. The search engine he uses? Bing. The audience at the screening I attended erupted in laughter. This was a screening in Seattle. We were willing totally willing to suspend our disbelief when it came to time travel and alternate realities and that comedian’s jokes. But the idea that someone would use Bing to look something up instead of Google? That was laughable.

I think that says it all.