Freetimers Web Marketing - Microsoft Bing Search Engine

Microsoft has rolled out its latest Search Engine, to attempt to combat the prowess of Google. Essentially it has a new take on "search", bring decision results rather than actual information type results that Google relates to.

Microsoft Bing Search Engine

For example, a search for "Britney Spears" in Google would produce Wikipedia and official Britney bio sites, whereas a similar search on BING would result in concert tickets, Britney products etc. Clearly showing the differentials between the two competitors!

On the other hand, you could say that similar websites produce the same criteria, so in fact, the same sites will rank similarly on both so actually their not too different at all.

Also, Microsoft has been very intuitive about their selection of a name, attempting to compete with the well-known phrase "Google-it" with perhaps "bing-it" also very similar in sounding to Ping! (which helps with word of mouth marketing)

So BING?? What Is It?

My Take On BING

The first thing that strikes me on Bing is the autoplay feature which starts video search results as you hover over the specific video, which let's be honest here is great. Saves a lot of time surfing through sites "bumff" in order to find the exact video you want. Although this does have its faults, for example, would you want your child typing in "Britney Spears" and seeing a clip of the homemade (let's say erotic) video she made!? BING itself is combatting this by dignifying responses on Twitter, combatting it by saying "there is a similar preference tool on Google"  though this does take away from the fact that is directly accessible in 2 clicks and does not need any age verification to do so!

BING is definitely well designed and clean cut, going with the trend of big pictures and striking designs which all the big retailers are bowing towards.

From the homepage, there is one-click access to video search, products and simple searches which seems to be efficient and user friendly enough! Once a search is done, Bing offers a vast array of tools. Related categories, related searches and search history on the left. the middle contains the actual search results separated by categories while on the write it has similar to these options.

Similar to Google there is a product, video, picture and all sorts of other areas to search from.

The Image search option seems to be the flagship feature, different to Google it incorporates vast results on one page with no tedious next page clicking needed.

Generally, Bing is a success (so far), but in the long run, the end-user will determine its fate, will they be able to find exactly what they are looking for? In my opinion, it will be used for retail purpose searches and Google will end up being the information source, not that this will suit Google and I predict changes to encompass this aspect of Bings advantages.

Google Versus Bing

Who and What Search Engine Is Best for The End-User

I had preconceived ideas before this experiment and was completely against Live Search (Microsoft previous attempt at Google Bashing). Simply because I would type in "Kanye West" and come up with some internet company selling websites. Although now it has to be said that I'm overall leaning towards Bing features incorporated into Google, which has surprised me completely, my day to day job as an SEO Specialist mainly with Google, Google qualifications and ten years experience using it have dismayed my loyalty. Put simple I don't think Bing is as good as Google for what it is, it just points out the weaknesses that Google itself has. Which for me can only benefit Google (at least for the time being)

Some of the features are so obviously remakes of Google is unbelievably ambitious to even attempt it, for example, the news section just makes me feel like I'm cheating to use it!

The main benefit to us all is the competition aspect of it, so the real winner is us, to be honest. Although Bing is a worthy adversary I don't believe they will conquer the almighty Google in many ways, although Google will almost certainly want to catch-up on a few aspects, most obviously the Video autoplay function.

I'm looking forward to competing with the Bing algorithm on a daily basis for my SEO and PPC clients and for personal use!