Microsoft’s new search engine Bing is garnering attention these days, backed by news that it surpassed Yahoo as the second-highest ranked search site for a day. This development prompted critiques and sound bites from notables such as Yahoo’s CEO and Google’s CEO. Naturally, I figured I’d get in on the action, too, and test drive Bing for a week.
If you haven’t tried it or seen one of the information-overload TV spots Microsoft is airing to raise awareness, Bing is being marketed as a decision engine, not a your run-of-the-mill search engine. What’s the difference, you ask? This marketing video outlines the finer points, complete with enthusiastic voiceover.
And so armed with the information above and looking at a few blog posts, I entered the world of Bing for one week. Here’s what I found:
The look of Bing
The first thing you notice about Bing when you land on its main page is the image of the day, a kind of new-agey, glorified stock photo. You can mouse-over areas of the image for interesting, time-wasting facts. Not sure who wins out here: Bing’s main page photo or Google’s logo swap-outs.
The main page also features an explore tab that lets you drill down to information. Bing’s initial focus is on shopping, planning a trip, researching health conditions or finding a local business. As Bing expands its expertise, perhaps a more robust interface will be developed.
Search results
Bing organizes its search results with a sponsored URL first, with the site’s deep links exposed for quick access. Subsequent hits are sub-divided with headers, which appear to be based on related searches, a definite plus over Google’s long lists of pages. Bing also provides you with options to refine your search. The left-hand column offers related searches and filtering criteria to help you get closer to your destination.
New creature comforts
Bing’s creature comforts are top highlights for me. When searching for videos, mouse over a thumbnail for a video preview, complete with audio. A seven-day price predictor comes in handy when booking airfare, along with Bing’s filtering tool that helps you comparison shop. The image search process greatly benefits from something Microsoft is calling infinite scroll — no more paging through pages of images, just scroll away to your heart’s content.
The verdict
While I’m not willing to part with my Google searches and the comforts of my iGoogle page just yet, I am interested in seeing the upgrades Microsoft has planned for Bing going forward. I'm not sure if Microsoft is refocusing its efforts in innovation — Bing is a good first step.