Searching for a hero

By you've probably seen the TV ads for Bing, Microsoft's so-called 'decision engine'. (Incidentally, whatever's wrong with plain old searching? I can decide things for myself, thanks very much. Once I've run it past Her Indoors...)

The software giant's offering aims to be more 'visually rich' than Google's bit of all white.
Prior to the launch of the advertising onslaught, Microsoft's UK vice president of consumer and online Ashley Highfield told MediaGuardian.co.uk that the vendor was not afraid of big, bad Google.

"We are taking out our slingshots and taking on Goliath," he declared.

Nice analogy, Ashley, but it's hard to see a company that banked $15bn net profit last year as a feisty underdog. And a $2bn ad campaign seems less of a slingshot, more of a nuclear arsenal. Frankly, I'd feel more inclined to accept Steve Ballmer as the next James Bond.