The article was interesting, but using Google and Bing as plurals really disorients me. I had to stop and mentally substitute every time he said something like "Google are thinking".
Huh. I'm British and I would always use singular for a company (not for sports teams necessarily ref: that wiki link). Are we really supposed to say "Google are having an earnings call on Tuesday"? I would say "Google is having an earnings call on Tuesday".
They're using the company name as a collective noun or as shorthand for "people at company X or product Y", makes sense to me (a Brit).