I just read an article about how a travel search engine named Kayak believes Microsoft copied their design for Bing. I did notice some content similarities in the screenshots from the article, but from a design perspective I think it may be pushing it to suggest they copied.
Sure, the color schemes are similar, but I think Bing is a much cleaner design. The colors are a little more subtle and the layout feels less cluttered.
Aside from the screenshots, I found very little to really compare. There are millions of websites on the internet, and when you have similar content you are bound to find similarities in design. How many times do you hear a song and think it sounds familiar even though you’ve never heard it before? Similar is not the same as copying. A copied site would be where you are confused about which site you are on.
I’m sure there are some really confused people out there who somehow ended up on Bing when they really wanted to be on Kayak, but I think the majority of people won’t have this issue. I’m sure that Kayak only helped themselves by landing some free publicity with Microsoft. Maybe they’ll land a few more customers as a result.