Yesterday the boss declared that Microsoft's bing.com is something of a triumph, on the grounds that it "doesn't completely suck". Hats off to the boss, he likes to cause a stir, but as arguments go, it's a lot of old cock. There's no doubting the past achievements of Microsoft, but if Bing represents the sum total of Microsoft's efforts right now, how can anybody say they're not in a perilous state and keep a straight face about it?

Microsoft hasn't re-invented the wheel with Bing, they've just changed the tyre. Meanwhile Google and Apple are building jetpacks and moon bases, by disrupting the status quo and creating products that fundamentally change and reshape our behaviour. Nothing sums up Microsoft's stagnating imagination better than the commercial for Bing. Instead of demonstrating the benefits of Bing, they spend the whole advert demonising Google. Instead of promoting their strengths, they're too busy promoting the failings of others:

Try typing "tickets to Hawaii" into the search engine you use, and let me know on what page Hawaii 5-O is mentioned. Nonsense. Sorry boss, but"not completely sucking" just isn't good enough.