Google Principal Engineer Matt Cutts expressed surprise at the degree at which Microsoft denied claims that its search engine Bing is a copycat.

Expressing surprise on Microsoft’s strong denial, Matt Cutts wrote in his personal blog, “I didn’t expect that Microsoft would deny the claims so strongly.”

The spat between Microsoft and Google started on February 1, when the blog Search Engine Land revealed details of Google’s sting operation against Bing. Google accused Microsoft’s Bing search engine of copying its search results.

Microsoft defended Bing, claiming that it did not copy results from any of its competitors. The software giant added that they had some of the best talent in the world, plus accused Google of using a kind of click fraud to execute its Bing Sting. Fake clicks are usually used by scammers on Web adverts in order to get paid by advertisers.

But, Cutts said Microsoft should answer the degree to which clicks on Google search engine figure into Bing’s rankings. The Google executive also asked Microsoft to elucidate how much of an impact clicks on Google influence Bing’s rankings.