• Cnet, Friday, May 29, 2009 1 PM

Cnet's Rafe Needleman reviews Microsoft's new search engine, Bing, calling it "a solid improvement over the previous search product" that "beats Google in important areas." In fact, so good is Bing, Needleman declares, that, "it will help Microsoft gain share in the search business." Sources claim that the new search service will go live on June 3.

Bing wins big in a few areas, Needleman says, notably in search presentation, where it offers refined versions of search queries in addition to regular results. It also competes with Google on the quality of its search results (though Google's were still marginally better, he says) as well as in certain search areas, like product reviews. Needlman says Bing also has very strong "shopping" tabs that organize results well, and of course, Microsoft still offers a cashback program, "which is hard to beat."

Other strengths include incorporating Microsoft content into search results. For example, searches for airplane travel include price predictions from Farecast, Microsoft's airfare prediction service. All in all, "Bing makes Google look complacent, and that's not good for Google," Needleman says. "For the moment, Bing's on top in this game. Try this search engine. I do not think you will regret it."

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