Commentary

Bing Me Up, Scottie!

  • by , June 11, 2009

A couple weeks ago, Microsoft’s new search, Bing, went live, replacing Live Search. Now, I’m an ardent Googler (who isn’t in this day and age?). I especially love my Gmail, Google Trends, and of course Search. But I’m always down to try out someone’s attempt at a semantic search, so I’ve been playing around with Bing since it went live, and I figured I’d share my thoughts with you here.

When compared against Google, I think Bing actually brings some things to the table from which Google could learn. At the same time, though, there are still some things that Google is doing better than Bing.

Probably the best thing about Bing is that they always have their related searches right there for you at the top to click on. With Google, they’re at the very bottom. Now I know, it’s still all on the same page, but it’s something like 1% of Google searches extend beyond the first page, so it serves to reason that not many people even scroll to the bottom of the page. +1 for Bing.

The exact opposite is also true. There are some very basic questions that you can ask Google, and it will give you a straightforward answer at the very top of the page. If Bing is able to answer the question, it puts the answer at the bottom. +1 for Google.

It’s all tied up.

Bing also allows you to preview everything, including images, websites, and videos. Not so for Google. +1 for Bing.

Google automatically remembers me. Bing forces me to sign in each visit. +1 for Google.
I really like how Bing will divide up results into different categories. Instead of just presenting them as different media, like Google does (as does Bing), if I search for “Beastie Boys,” for example, it will automatically divide up everything into lyrics, biography, ringtones, downloads, etc. Google just has those generic options: videos, forums, reviews (that don’t display automatically and don’t change with each search). +1 for Bing.

Finally, I like Bing because it’s not Google. As much as I love Google, sometimes the paranoid, Big-Brother-is-watching-you side of me thinks, “Wow! Google sure knows a lot about me and preferences.” That can be a good thing: the more they know about me, the better search results I can get; plus Google can compare my searches against my Inbox and deliver even better results. But sometimes, I want to scatter my electronic footprints, and spread out my i-activity between different services and accounts. So +1 for Bing for simply not being Google.

So the final score is 4-2 Bing. Sadly, though, I will likely continue to do the bulk of my searching with Google. Why? Because Safari won’t let me change my search engine from Google to anything else. Oh, well. But give Bing a try while your browser is still open. You might like it.

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