There’s no secret that Microsoft is trying everything they can to reach Google’s level when it comes to search, while Google is trying everything they can to reach Microsoft’s level in everything else. I don’t think either have come close to taking over the others areas of expertise.
Microsoft’s new “decision engine”, BING, is their latest attempt to attract more search users and hopefully some of the advertising that comes with it. The results, to me, seem almost just like Google’s results, just with a bit more fluff involved.
Usually when Microsoft launches these new attempts, it seems Google doesn’t do much to react…except this time. According to the New York Post, Sergey has jumped in to run a team of the top cats to improve their search engine.
Since I read this story, I’ve been paying closer attention to the Google feed and they are having a lot of “improvements” popping out faster than normal.
- Page Speed
- SEO Starter Guide in 40 Languages (trying to keep the SEO people on their side..smart)
- Message Forwarding
- Complete Overhaul of Webmaster Tools Dash
- Update to Sitemaps
Then today I was doing a search and noticed they are labeling listings in their SERP’s that are forums. They are giving the total number of “posts” and total number of “authors“. I actually kind of like this because if you’re looking for help with something like a computer issue, I usually look for forum url’s but you never know what you’ll get until you open it. Now I can find the listings that are busier with the expectation of finding a solution. Here’s a screen shot:
The one thing I haven’t tested yet is when they show a listing that might be page 10 of 200 within a thread. Does it count the number of authors for the entire thread? Or is it just page specific?
Have you tried BING yet? I have to admit it’s kind of nice. Catchy name, results are very similar to Google and while they still have some kinks to work out, I think it has some advantages over Google.
Whether BING does well or not, at least they’re keeping Google from becoming complacent with their search product.
13 comments ↓
I do like that Microsoft hasn’t given up the fight in the search space, but Bing hasn’t exactly won me over. I think the branding of Bing is strange at best and I agree that they’ve tried to make it look more like Google. (I guess you can’t blame them for that, though.) I would’ve hoped for something more ground-breaking…
Bing has some interesting things. And it has passed Yahoo already, after it’s launch. It dropped back off, but you can see here it’s gaining on it again:
Top Search Engines
Also, I dig their photos they have on the start page with highlighted boxes you can learn about things. I’ve seen several times where they will send you to their photosynth.net site where you can see different angles of whatever they’re talking about.
Cool Waterfall in Iceland
One other interesting note on Bing… I don’t see any ads!
In my opinion, BING is already ground breaking in itself as a brand. It is so ugly, that everyone has been commenting about it. You see it on Twitter, on blogs, on the news, everywhere… Know what I mean.
I really do hope that Bing stands out and keeps the competition going, as this can only be good to all of us users.
BTW, we should not forget that it is also wise to submit our websites to Bing. The Bing Webmaster Center Tools has got lots of interesting features and worth the trouble.
I`ve used Bing a few times. I suppose any competition must be good, it gives users more choice, and hopefully keeps all the search engines on their toes.
At first I thought Bing was just a desperate attempt to do anything to stop the onslaught of Google but after using it a couple of times it does have some cool features. I like how their image results are all on one page and you can just scroll through them without having to forward pages. I did notice that sometimes when I search for something it will only provide five results of what I asked for then some other results that “they” think I would want–kind of annoying. I guess only time will tell if Bing will add to their Bling!
Bing flat-out rocks.
I did a search for my site (the weirding) on Google and though it comes up first for “the weirding,” a search using “weirding” gave me three pages of some album called The Weirding by a band called Astra. Of those first 30 results, less than 6-7 actually had anything to do with “the weirding” – as in my site, Dune, that band named The Weirding (whose MySpace page has been returning toward the top for some time now), or anything else – all the rest were about buying this Astra album on Amazon, UK Sellers, e-Bay, et.al.
As has been the case basically since Google started slapping us sponsored post bloggers around, Google no longer returns relevant results – hasn’t in months, going on years, now. By dropping our PR in attempts to control what we publish and force us to use AdSense to the exclusion of all other forms of advertising or revenue, they’ve devalued their own engine to the point of complete irrelevance!
While my blog may be the authoritative guide to boweevles or whatever, Google tries to bury me just because I accept sponsored posts. This results in scores of “SEO”-savvy shopping results topping the ranks; instead of getting relevant information on boweevles, the average searcher gets page after page of where to buy boweevle dust, where to buy boweevle sprays, and (of course) “BUY BOWEEVLES on e-Bay!”
The last 2-3 PR updates, Google has kept me at PR0 and for about two weeks after that, I’m buried. By week 3-4, I’m back in the top 10. I’m pretty sure it’s thanks to users “promoting” my entries (with the preferences thing), but it may be because so many people choose my listing after sifting through the first 50 pages of ads and the ubiquitous Wikipedia return. Or it may well be that Google relists my (ultra-relevant) content only after they’ve ensured I make less/no money by giving me the big 0 PR.
Whatever, Google. Bing returns truly relevant results; I’ve yet to HAVE to go the next page to find whatever it is I was searching for. Even better, none of the top results are the same article on different websites and/or shorter articles with links to the #1 result, etc.
As much as I hate to admit it, Microsoft actually did something *right* with Bing. Now if they would only do something right with Windows – like give everyone who bought Vista a free upgrade to Win 7.
All I care about is relevant results. At this point, Bing gives me the best relevant SERPS and thats enough for me to use them as my primary SE. Google stopped giving me relevant results and started giving me headaches some time before Bing anyhow.
I’ve used bing a couple of times and really liked it. Especially the no-ad thing is what attracts me most.
I like it when two big companies compete against each other as we, as users, are usually benefited.
and the real war will begin, google plan to challege microsoft in OS industry with their new opearting system called Chrome to answer the customer thiefing by Bing!
Let see..
As long as results are accurate, Bing can be a difficult rival for Google. Bing seems to bring different results on the top ten and not just the same text posted in different pages which is an absolute plus when compared to google.
In a few years’ time, Bing will be Google’s greatest rival. Accurate clean results is what everybody wants from a search engine.
And now that Microsoft and Yahoo have joined forces things should get even more interesting.
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