Microsoft has been trounced in the search engine business, but it hasn't given in, and its third try might enjoy better luck
Microsoft admits it missed the importance of search - more accurately, it didn't realise there was so much money in it, until Google started piling up billions. It's trying to catch up. First, it converted MSN Search into Live Search, and now it has launched a new version, Bing, with a TV advertising campaign.
Microsoft's Steve Ballmer said Bing was one of the few available short names that worked on a worldwide basis. The company hasn't confirmed that it stands recursively for Bing Is Not Google, but that's the sort of joke software engineers enjoy.
So far, the "full" Bing is only available in the US. Bing's benefit - and its major problem - is that it does more than simple search, and some extra features depend on local data. The British version is being developed by more than 60 Microsoft engineers in the UK.
Microsoft says Bing goes beyond today's search engines by providing "intuitive tools to help customers make better decisions, focusing initially on four key vertical areas: making a purchase decision, planning a trip, researching a health condition or finding a local business." For example, if you search for BA48, Bing recognises it's a flight number and tells you the arrival time and terminal at Heathrow. In many cases, you can find the information you need without leaving Bing.
No doubt more "vertical areas" will be added, but each one requires a lot of work.
Bing has some useful features. For example, if you position the mouse cursor towards the right of a result, a thin vertical line appears, and Bing fetches text from the site. That can help you decide whether or not to visit it. Bing also lists your previous searches down the left hand side.
Some of Bing's innovations were already present in Live Search, but not widely known. These include the excellent image search, playing videos on the results page when you hover the mouse over them, and the xRank celebrity tracker.
Whether Bing's search results are as good as Google and Yahoo is open to doubt. However, this weekend, someone put up a "blind test" page that showed results from all three and invited you to pick the best, without knowing which was which. Bing took an early lead, then ran level with Google. At the time of writing, Google was in the lead (40%), with Yahoo and Bing about level (30%).
I'd expect Google to win the vote because we're familiar with its results, and people generally like what they know. However, two friends who are respectively Linux and Mac fans overwhelmingly chose Bing results, while my results were mixed but slightly favoured Yahoo.
This suggests that Google does not provide dramatically better results than its rivals, which its market dominance might suggest. It's worth trying all three to see which search engine suits you best. You might be surprised.
I doubt whether Bing can overtake Yahoo, let alone Google, but having more innovation in the search market should benefit everyone.
source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/jun/08/netbytes-microsoft-bing
Microsoft admits it missed the importance of search - more accurately, it didn't realise there was so much money in it, until Google started piling up billions. It's trying to catch up. First, it converted MSN Search into Live Search, and now it has launched a new version, Bing, with a TV advertising campaign.
Microsoft's Steve Ballmer said Bing was one of the few available short names that worked on a worldwide basis. The company hasn't confirmed that it stands recursively for Bing Is Not Google, but that's the sort of joke software engineers enjoy.
So far, the "full" Bing is only available in the US. Bing's benefit - and its major problem - is that it does more than simple search, and some extra features depend on local data. The British version is being developed by more than 60 Microsoft engineers in the UK.
Microsoft says Bing goes beyond today's search engines by providing "intuitive tools to help customers make better decisions, focusing initially on four key vertical areas: making a purchase decision, planning a trip, researching a health condition or finding a local business." For example, if you search for BA48, Bing recognises it's a flight number and tells you the arrival time and terminal at Heathrow. In many cases, you can find the information you need without leaving Bing.
No doubt more "vertical areas" will be added, but each one requires a lot of work.
Bing has some useful features. For example, if you position the mouse cursor towards the right of a result, a thin vertical line appears, and Bing fetches text from the site. That can help you decide whether or not to visit it. Bing also lists your previous searches down the left hand side.
Some of Bing's innovations were already present in Live Search, but not widely known. These include the excellent image search, playing videos on the results page when you hover the mouse over them, and the xRank celebrity tracker.
Whether Bing's search results are as good as Google and Yahoo is open to doubt. However, this weekend, someone put up a "blind test" page that showed results from all three and invited you to pick the best, without knowing which was which. Bing took an early lead, then ran level with Google. At the time of writing, Google was in the lead (40%), with Yahoo and Bing about level (30%).
I'd expect Google to win the vote because we're familiar with its results, and people generally like what they know. However, two friends who are respectively Linux and Mac fans overwhelmingly chose Bing results, while my results were mixed but slightly favoured Yahoo.
This suggests that Google does not provide dramatically better results than its rivals, which its market dominance might suggest. It's worth trying all three to see which search engine suits you best. You might be surprised.
I doubt whether Bing can overtake Yahoo, let alone Google, but having more innovation in the search market should benefit everyone.
source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/jun/08/netbytes-microsoft-bing
