> I would say it isn't exactly "if on google, do x".

I wish bing had taken this opportunity to answer that question in this blog post. Since they didn't, it makes me more likely to assume the worst. All they would have to say is something like "We use anonymized click data and don't special case Google" to avoid most of the controversy. Then we would be back to debating whether it is ethical to do something theoretically ok even if you know that it practically means you'll be cribbing from a competitor.