The introduction of Bing to the search scene has generated “a lot of buzz” around the web. Actually, that is an understatement because Bing has only been publicly available for just a couple days, yet the ripple effect it’s creating is already assuming seismic proportions.
Everyone seems to be catching the “Bing fever”. I recently stumbled on this site which allows you compare search results from both Google and Bing in real-time. It features two separate frames which display the Google and Bing search pages side by side as shown below;
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There have already been thousands (if not hundreds of thousands) of posts discussing the pros and cons of “Microsoft’s new baby”. So far the pros seem to out-weigh the cons.
As for me, I am loving it already, and it’s not just for the value added features (which are quite impressive I must add), but what it ultimately brings to the world of search, especially in relation to Google. I have never hidden my distaste for Google’s Search dominance, and I definitely am not about to start now.
Don’t get me wrong, most of my website’s traffic comes from Google, but I have never been a fan of “monopoly”- which is what Search was slowly becoming before the release of Bing- a release which threatens this dominance outright.
As a matter of fact, there have been suggestions that “perhaps Google’s Search dominance may well be over”, and these speculations might not be far-fetched after all.
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Not everyone agrees though
Google’s Matt Cutts recently took Bing on over the quality of their search results, in this Tweeting session. I’m gonna be borrowing a bit. Hope you don’t mind Chris;
Matt Cutts: Congrats to @bing on the launch! Sad to see this not-so-relevant result at #4 for [matt cutts] though: http://bit.ly/4a8Q1Y
Bing: @mattcutts anytime you want to give feedback to @bing, we’re here.
I’m sitting with the devs at present. ^betsy
Bing: @mattcutts I know you are disappointed in ego search stuff tonight w/ @bing, but try ‘mtv movie awards 2009′ and see what you get.
Matt Cutts: Ouch. The #5 Bing result for [matt cutts] is spammy too: http://bit.ly/B2r5F It’s a YouTube->WordPress autogenerated blog.
Matt Cutts: @bing okay. First web result was from 2008 instead of 2009, even with 2009 in query: http://bit.ly/SToK1 . Google nails it.
Matt Cutts: @bing but doesn’t it bother you that [mtv movie awards] on Google gives great news results and 2009 url, but w/Bing I only see 2008, 2007, ?
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You can imagine what my “initial” impressions were now, can’t you? Yeah yeah yeah, Matt Cutts is simply trying to make Google look good, after all, as Chris rightly said: “He is practically the posterboy for Google, at least among the search and tech savvy crowd”, but after talking to some other people to get their opinions on this, I got a couple in the affirmative of Matt’s assertions. Here’s just one;
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Admittedly, after playing around with the tool above, I had to succumb to my pal’s views on Bing. That, for now (I think) is Google’s most powerful asset- something Bing would seriously have to work on if they want to “offer users a more refined search experience capable of satisfying queries more quickly than any rival search engine”, and have any chance of achieving this “hostile take-over”.
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Marketing Strategy or Last Ditch Survival Attempt
Google’s recent actions seem to suggest that perhaps even they feel threatened by the “new kid on the block”. Can’t help wondering if this was a perfectly executed marketing strategy aimed at keeping them ahead of the game, or just a last ditch attempt to stuff the wind out of Bing’s sails.
With recent unfolding of events, I am tempted to incline my thoughts toward the latter. Matt Cutts’ “show-down” with Bing’s Betsy surely hasn’t done much to reduce my supsicion.
Danny Sullivan, however insists Google will stay strong Despite Bing and Yahoo. According to him,
Just because a product — toothpaste, laundry detergent, whatever — calls itself “new and improved” does not mean consumers will abandon a brand that they already use and like. Microsoft’s new search engine Bing faces this same challenge in taking on Google. Google’s not broken; people like it, and there’s no compelling reason for them to switch to Bing, much less the more established Yahoo.
I beg to differ. Danny is a well known and hugely respected authority on all things search, and much as I hate to disagree with him, I just have to.
Also, if this article is anything to go by, Google’s dominance might indeed be coming to an end. According to this, “One News Page talked to more than 1,000 people, and 55 percent of them supposedly said that they could see themselves replacing Google with Bing as their main search engine”.
90% said they could be using the expression ‘to Bing it’ as a metaphor for conducting an internet search.
People have often registered their displeasure at Google in the past, the most memorable for me being shortly after their latest Page Rank update, which saw many sites (including ours) lose PR.
The fact of the matter in my opinion is that webmasters are just sick and tired of literally having the fates of their sites in the hands of the “almighty” Google.
Truth be told, no one likes to be controlled by the “whims and caprices” of another, a situation brought about by Google’s dominance over the years. Perhaps all that’s about to change? We’ll just have to wait and see.
Okay. I’ve said my bit, now let’s hear what you have to say.
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