As with all other thing that hugely affects our lives, there have been diverse views on Bing, especially amongst the tech/search savvy crowd, and webmasters in general. Sounds like your regular revolution doesn’t it?

Microsoft’s Bing release has however proved to be more than the average revolution, drawing widespread discourse from literally every corner of the globe, with many scrutinizing Bing, and offering (mostly negative) comments about the Search Engine, almost always in comparison to Google.

Only two days after the official release announcement, Bing had already come under intense fire from “search experts”, with many doubting its ability to compete with, much less “steal” market share from Google- often citing the quality of the Search Engine’s results and speed as the two major reasons.

Two weeks down the road, Bing surprised many including the experts, recording an 11.4% rise in searcher penetration. Bing had already attained a 16.7% searcher penetration and a 12.1% share of search results pages among all US workday searches, according to stats from comscore.com.

:

Microsoft Sites’ average daily penetration among U.S. searchers reached 16.7 percent during the work week of June 8-12, up 3 percentage points from the May 25-29 work week prior to Bing’s introduction

These results have however not changed the minds of some who still insist the only way Bing can cause a major upset is if it provides much better search results than Google, the basis of the argument being ;

.. the same or “good enough” probably isn’t enough for Bing to convince too many people to switch from using Google

I for one disagree, and I made it clear in an earlier post on this site that I thought Bing would effectively “terminate” Google’s search dominance, and it definitely wasn’t because of the quality of search results (where Google surpasses Bing I must add).  A comment on that post literally really summarizes my entire view of the competition;

…. Bottom line: more comprehensive results does not mean more usage, at least for me.

Let’s face it, the search results generated by both Google and Bing aren’t that far apart, as such several other factors will be key in the determining the future of the competition between them.

Whilst many experts have focused on search results in trying to determine Bing’s fate, most have ignored a very important factor in market development- BUZZ. It’s quite simple really- the more people talk about a product, the more attention is drawn to that product, and more (and more) people are forced to check it out, if for nothing else to see what all the fuss is about.

Microsoft obviously hasn’t forgotten though- and they have clearly shown that with a series of marketing campaigns which have included a “live Bingathon and fast-forwarding commercials on The Daily Show“- Bing has literally been in everyone’s faces, attracting a huge number of “trial searchers”, which according to compete.com “haven’t produced significant enough volume to impact the established market share of the top engines, which account for more than 12 billion queries”.

:

The Buzz and the Competition

Instead of trying to take on Google where they are obviously stronger, Microsoft have rather focused on making Bing more robust- offering users a richer experience- thus making the search engine Exciting »» Interactive »» Engaging !!

:

The Strategy

Microsoft has put in a lot of effort in ensuring that they present Bing as a “Decision Engine”- which organizes the answers you need so you can make faster, more informed decisions. As shown below, Bing displays search results, not by order of popularity, but rather organizes them into categories such as best matches, similar results, and related searches.
:

:

Bing essentially appeals to the senses of searchers by providing features which aid the searcher in making a decision, paying particular attention to the areas of key interest to most people- Travel, Health, and Shopping.

Shopping

No doubt one of Bing’s strong points- searching for a product on Bing generates price comparisons, images, and actual user reviews, sorted and grouped to display popular features, and even cash back for that particular product from “hundreds of online retailers”.

Health

Bing does really well with regards to this touchy subject. Bing’s health results pull together information from “top medical sources health sources from all over the world” to provide concise, and accurate results. A search for Malaria for instance, generates the following useful information alongside the actual search results;

• Articles
• Treatment
• Medication
• Causes
• Pregnancy
• Test
• Images

:

Travel

Apart from the useful content displayed on the Bing home page, Bing also features a special travel page which searches travel sites to find the best ticket options, offers tools to refine search results, and an impressive price predictor tool which tells you when fares will be cheapest.

Local Search

Bing provides tools that make it easier and quicker to find relevant local content, such as user reviews from local content sites, hours of operation for local businesses, one-click directions, maps and traffic reports. Each local listing in Bing provides a snapshot of information to help you make decisions, along with tools that help you refine local search results based on a number of factors, including rating, distance, type of cuisine, price, etc.

Additionally, Bing Maps lets you easily find, discover and share location information, providing useful tools such as maps and directions and view high-resolution aerial imagery.

:

Google Running Scared?

It is quite clear what Microsoft intended to achieve with Bing, and they may well have succeeded. From all indications, Bing’s unexpectedly rapid growth has Google “threatened”.

Last week, the New York post reported that co-founder Sergey Brin is so rattled by the launch of Microsoft’s rival search engine that he has assembled a team of top engineers to work on urgent upgrades to his Web service.

Brin, according to sources inside the tech behemoth, is himself leading the team of search-engine specialists in an effort to determine how Bing’s crucial search algorithm differs from that used by the company he founded in 1998 with Stanford University classmate Larry Page.

New search engines have come and gone in the past 10 years, but Bing seems to be of particular interest to Sergey,” said one insider, who spoke on the condition of anonymity

The move by Brin is unusual, as it is rare these days for the Google founders to have such hands-on involvement in day-to-day operations at the company

:

What Really Matters?

Maybe comprehensive search results really don’t translate into usage after all. Microsoft’s strategy has been pretty simple-

1. Create a feature-rich product that makes search a bit more exciting by offering greater usability and interaction.
2. Spend a fortune marketing that product, with the aim of getting people to check it out and experience those rich features
   :

I guess it’s fair to say the strategy has worked. Bing has since had everyone “lining up” to check it out, including the skeptics, many of whom believed “this Bing thing would be a giant failure”. To be quite honest, after experiencing the features on offer at Bing, you could easily forget about some of the noticeable flaws on the Search Engine.

:

:

So what’s with the name Bing anyhow?

Well, it’s all in the branding really.  Microsoft says;

We needed a brand that was as fresh and new as our approach. It needed to be like the product — optimized for the Internet. A name that was memorable, short, easy to spell, and that would function well as a URL around the world.

Apparently, Bing is supposed to be “a new kind of search that goes beyond traditional search engines to help you make faster, more informed decisions”.

“It will do this by combining a great search engine (with powerful new features to improve your results for any query), more organized results, and unique tools to help you make important decisions. We think of Bing as a Decision Engine.”

Okay, so can Bing really take on Google in its own backyard? (which is exactly what the world of search has become really). Even Ballmer concedes;

Search and advertising, we are a small share….It’s all about Google. They have share, we don’t have share.

Hmm… Microsoft is however expected to spend $80 million to $100 million on Bing marketing, and many believe Bing will most likely take market share from Yahoo!

:

So what exactly does Bing bring to the “search game” ?

Bing is not dramatically different from Google, but some people have found its results stronger. There are some visible changes:

• Bing shows a preview of the web pages in the search results when you hover your mouse pointer at the right side of the search results.
• Bing displays fewer results if it is certain that it has understood your intent. The search for “Facebook”, for example, brings up just one result linking to the site itself.
• Some search results are divided into categories. For example, if you search for the popular musician “Justin Timberlake”, you’ll get results in the categories news, songs, movies, biography, wallpaper and downloads. In addition, the search results show images, videos and the popularity of the musician.
• Wikipedia searches can be displayed inline in the search results without leaving the Bing site by clicking the “Enhanced view” link.
• Bing features a different background image every day. The image contains special hidden hotspots that lead you to more information (soon advertising?) about the image.
• Despite the background image, Bing’s homepage loads very quickly in your web browser because the search box and logo load first. You can turn off the background image.
• Bing’s video search lets you watch videos without leaving the search engine.
• Bing offers specific health, shopping and travel search engines, as well as instant answers to travel searches. For instance, the search “Vegas hotels” displays a selection of hotels in Las Vegas, including hotel stars and prices.
• Bing’s search history lets you return to your most recent searches of the last two days. This feature can be turned off to protect your privacy.

An obvious difference however, is Google’s ability to recognize misspellings and offer suggestions,which Bing has a visible lack of. For example, Bing doesn’t seem to recognize misspellings and returns no results in these cases

There have already been suggestions that Bing will be a success for Microsoft, and I must say I agree.

…. Microsoft has plenty of room to grow if they can only offer something that has some minimal value-add beyond what Google offers. Bing already does that. As soon as some search consumers see and experience the contextual sidebar searches in a Bing search, they will see how some searches can save them time on Bing, they will start using it for some of their searches, then defect back over to Google whenever a search fails on Bing.

True! Microsoft’s best bet would be to maximize the additional value Bing offers searchers.

Beyond all that, there’s just something about that name that makes me feel it surely will, even though Steve Ballmer jokes “We should have named it ‘BOOM!’”

Surely would have had a different meaning down here (if you know what I mean).

: