There is a lot of hype out right now about Bing, Microsoft's new search (or if you prefer, decision) engine. I have tested Bing a couple of times, and it is not bad. It is different in some ways from Google, but I am still unconvinced that it is "better" than Google. One of the claims that Microsoft is making in its expensive advertising campaign to promote Bing is that it actually produces the result that you are looking for better than the competition. The competition is, of course, Google,and let's not forget Yahoo.
I decide to give these three search engines a test on a topical search. I wanted to look for a copy of Michael Jackson's Will, which I know is out there online, because I have seen it through a link in a Twitter message. So, I typed "michael jackson's will" in to Bing, Google and Yahoo. This is a some what tricky search because of the combination of "michael jackson" and "will". It can turn up all kind of results because "will" is more prevalent as a verb and also appears in at least one prominent Michael Jackson song title. So I intentionally added the possessive to help the search along.
Google turned up a good link to the Will as its third result. Yahoo showed a different, but good link to the Will as its sixth result. Google and Yahoo also had numerous results linking to news coverage of the Will. Bing, however, failed to show a good result for the Will itself, instead producing a large array of other Michael Jackson results, and had no results of news coverage on the Will.
Sorry, Bing, you lose in this test.
Update July 14, 2009:
All Things Digital Columnist Peter Kafka put out Microsoft's Bing Problem: Google Is Just Fine this morning that pretty much covers the real challenge for Bing. Microsoft is spending big money on getting people to try Bing, and some people are being moved to do so, but the challenge is getting people to switch to Bing. I have tried Bing, and it works well, but I am a regular Google user and I am not sure that I see enough difference in what Bing is doing to cause me to stop using Google and switch to Bing. Kafka's article cites a JP Morgan survey that indicates only 4 in 10 users turned to Bing more than 5 times in June. It also indicates that Microsoft's percentage gain in search share is probably coming at the expense of other marginal players in the search game, such as Ask and AOL, not from Google's followers.
Another problem for Microsoft also may be that Google and Yahoo have established popular portals to the internet around their search engines by allowing users to customize their search website screens. Google has attracted a huge number of programmers who have developed "gadgets" to function on its portal. I use a customized Google homepage, with gadgets linking me to media publications, websites, gmail, Twitter, financial information, sports scores and weather, as well as additional tabs marked "Literary,""Leisure" and "Business" for other gadgets. Google also provides templates to customize the appearance of your pages, with themes and other extras. I have been using for some time an artist theme based on Dale Chihuly's blown glass sculpture.
Yahoo does the same thing, and I have a customized Yahoo page as well. I sometimes prefer this Yahoo page, mainly because it provides a gadget for market financial information through Yahoo Finance, which is far superior to any of the market data gadgets that I can find for Google.
Microsoft has MSN as a portal. MSN, however, has struggled to attract users much the same way as Microsoft's search services have. Users, like me, who are happy with Google or Yahoo customized portals, or with other popular sites like YouTube or a customized Facebook page, are not likely to want to switch over to MSN just to get Bing as a search engine.
It seems that technology has fully entered an age in which allowing users to show their individuality is very important. Younger users now expect to have their own home pages, to customize their browsers, to post their lives online through Facebook or Twitter. The numbers show that older generations are catching up too. The Facebook demographics are graying as more and more parents and grandparents join their children and grandchildren online.
Users of all ages now "layer" their Internet experience, picking and customizing a web browser, then picking and customizing a homepage that launches with the browser, and then perhaps having numerous other customized sites out like Facebook or Twitter. Somewhere in this mix is a default search engine, and my guess is that people are sticking with Google or Yahoo because they have already spent considerable time customizing their home page and the search engine that they have and that, as Kafka says, "is already working just fine".
In short, Microsoft is not offering enough distinction in Bing or MSN to drive users there.
Update November 30, 2009: Perez Hilton???
And the winner is ...... Perez Hilton?!?!?!? The category is most searched celebrity on Bing during 2009. Too wild to be true, or a bug in your Bing? See Kara Swisher's post today on All Things Digital,"A Bing Bug? If Not, How Did This Dude Beat Out Megan Fox and the Even Prettier Robert Pattinson for Most-Searched Celeb?"
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