Is Microsoft's revamped MSN Live Search engine, named Bing - a Google killer? Does Bing push the search game to a new level? Will Bing eat into the huge marketshare that is Google's?
We will admit, it took us a few weeks before we gave Bing a try. What we like is the very calm, easy on the eye results display. And we like the "related searches" that is well presented on the top left of the page. However - these can be easily managed by Google, so no real news here. We can give or take on the images presented on the main Bing page.
When testing for relevancy, which we believe is the most important deliverable from a search engine - we don't see much different. In many Google searches, the related Wkipedia entry is often top ranked, yet it is 2nd or 3rd in Bing. And the actual returned results, in our limited (and unscientific test) was similar. However, we noted that Bing returned many more total results. For instance:
- Internet Marketing Executive - Bing returned 81 Million (now down to 36 million) results to Google's 20 Million (now 44 million).
- Hawaiian Resorts - Bing presented 42 Million to Google 283,000.
- Web 2.0 Technology - Bing returned 119 Million (now 147 million!) to Google's 5.8 Million (now 196 million)
The question we ask - is this is a better search experience? Has Bing delivered on the promise to deliver results that lead to a better decision (aka decision engine). At this early stage, we do not think so. In fact, we believe the results are similar to what we observed from Google 2-3 years back.
No doubt, in some instances, the results from Bing could be stated as superior - however in our limited and random checks, we haven't see this yet.
Our initial reaction, especially to the news that Bing has increased it's marketshare, could be accounted for because of it's strong publicity and marketing efforts. Do they stay and sustain Bing's marketshare - for now yes. Until Google reacts and provides added value to return to the dominant search player.
The last two thoughts: we like that "some" twitter feeds are being added to Bing, however it is limited and for now you need to include "twitter" into the search query. And, how does Bing affect the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) world. We want to understand Bing and SEO (and will report on this later), as our own professional website took a ranking hit on this Microsoft search platform:
- "Stephen Harris" (Google #1, Bing #10)
- "internet marketing executive" (Google #1, Bing - Page 3)
- "online marketing executive" (Google #2, Bing #4)
Thanks for sharing for this nice article and thanks for permitting me to post my comments.
Posted by: Attorney Smith | September 15, 2009 at 07:26 AM