In reaction, Bing have strongly denied Google’s claims, saying they use “multiple signals and approaches” to compile their search results list and refute any accusations of copying and have instead accused Google of “spy-novelesque stunts.”

However a Google employee has created an online blog explaining how the investigation was conducted. According to the blog, Google engineers input a hundred fake nonsensical search queries and also phoney results. Google claims that within a matter of weeks, Bing were indexing the search queries and false results.

Bing have hit back at Google’s accusations, saying the investigation’s findings do not prove Bing have cheated. Instead the accused search engine says Google’s findings show “we learn from customers who are willing to share data with us” which they argue is the same strategy Google employs while compiling their results.

Instead of showing Bing up as cheats, Google’s alleged evidence may only prove that Bing are capable of picking up on trends quickly by indexing results for the dummy queries as they noted an increase of searches for this topic.

Bing have batted aside Google’s cheating claim calling it a “creative tactic” by a competitor to dent their reputation.

While the list is mainly dominated by celebrity names, heading up the poll in the number one spot of subjects searched on Yahoo this year was the BP oil spill on the Gulf Coast.

Last year, Yahoo reported that the death of Michael Jackson was the most searched subject on their search engine knocking US pop star Britney Spears off the top spot after three years. In 2009 Britney dropped to 5^th on the Yahoo most searched chart, and dropped further this year to 10^th place.

Although Yahoo’s poll is a fairly good indicator of trends within the online world, Google is still the most used search engine in the world and boasts billions of users worldwide, therefore their chart, which is due for release later this month, is likely to better gauge the popularity of people and events who’ve dominated the past 12 months.

Microsoft’s search engine Bing recently revealed their list of popular searches of 2010 which named American reality TV star, Kim Kardashian as its number one, while AOL named Tiger Woods as their most searched subject of the year.

The bulk of subjects trending on this year’s Yahoo search engine results list were celebrity names including Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber and Megan Fox.

BING is designed to take over from Microsoft’s current search engine Live Search, and its already being tipped as a dangerous contender for the mighty seo.htm” target=”_self”>Google. Early reviews of the site have been extremely encouraging. Bing differs from other search engines in as much it aims to give you less choice as opposed to more. It offers a more targeted results list, with the option of displaying further results. Instead of bombarding the user with a blanket response to questions BING provides a narrower but more select response to questions.

Another key feature of Bing is that instead of directing the user to an external site to view, for example, videos, listen to music, read articles, or shop online, it allows you to do all this without ever leaving Bing. It also offers an exclusive video search service as part of the package. In theory this should lead to greater ease of use and accessibility.

Whether or not Bing can rival the other major search engines such as Google and Yahoo remains to be seen. What is certain however is that the search engine as we know it is evolving, and that can only be good news for internet users the world over.