This is the headline of the day, so far as I'm concerned: "Can We Please Stop Pretending That Microsoft's Bing Is Doing Well?" The Business Insider takes a hard look at Bing's numbers and tries to debunk recent claims by tech pundits that Bing is catching up to Google on the search engine front. Here's the startling thesis:

How much is Microsoft spending to buy market share for Bing?
Based on an analysis of Microsoft's financial statements, Bing is paying about 3X as much for every incremental search query as it generates in revenue from that query.
What does that mean?
It means that for every $1 Microsoft generates from each new search query it buys, it spends $3 to get it.

Do I think the story is as simple as the headline makes it out to be? Probably not. You need to read the comments to the piece, too, which suggest that, among other things, Microsoft needs to blow a paltry few billion on Bing, because without it they won't be able to make inroads on smartphones and tablets. It's a great discussion, and well worth having.