Bing.Com: Will it Take Over the Search Game?

We've surely all seen the commercial for the new "decision engine" Bing. Each day on television, we see some poor fellow with "search overload." This poor soul was merely trying to find the answer to a pressing question, but instead they can't stop spouting off the titles and taglines of unrelated websites. Microsoft is trying to prove it's new search engine Bing is unique and more finely tuned than everyone's best friend Google, but is that really the truth? I'll take a look at what Bing is offering, and compare it to their ad claims.

First of all, anyone using Bing is definitely at least in capable hands. The platform is not at all unlike it's rival's formula: while I'm sure the algorithms are different, in my tests both returned good results based on my search strategy. While they may not have been in the same order, Bing and Google both gave me the best sites to answer my questions near to the top. The criticism that Google returns tons of useless results is proven baseless; while a very broad beginner's search would give you many results that didn't pertain to your query, a very broad Bing search inflicted the same result. Furthermore both services provided equally useful suggestions for what you might have meant to search, giving you the ability to narrow the results down more specifically with one click. Also, while Bing advertises it as new on their website, both services have "easy access" features, which will list the mai section of a website (the history, contact page, shop, etc.) as links below what they feel are the most pertinent results. This feature is helpful for searchers who are looking for a specific website they already know, but it isn't exclusive to Bing.

Overall, both websites have a large umber of the same add-ons and specifying search tools. They both deliver movie times, maps, restaurant information, shopping specific searching, etc. Where Bing wins is in the ease of use for those unfamiliar with the internet; with Google, you would have to know a search trick, like typing "movies +your zip code" to get fast movie times, where as bing lets you select that you want movie times. While that's great for my grandmother, as a twenty-something professional whose grown up with Google's technology, I am not annoyed or slowed down by this process, so offering me clicks the typing instead of just typing doesn't really draw me in. This seems to be the deal with several of Bing's ad claims; any long time Google user would probably already know how to do what Bing is offering--and more--in Google.

Bing does have some interesting new features that Google doesn't. It's health search is designed to give you authoritative resources first, something Google can only guarantee some of the time based on your search statement. Google also lacks a comprehensive search engine aimed specifically at travel, presumably because there are already a million out there. If you need one more, Bing has it. In creating their travel search, Bing has teamed up with Farecast, a technology that tells you when the cheapest tickets are likely to be available. This certainly has a great advantage for anyone considering a jaunt away. The technology is still very primitive (it can only look 30 days in the future) but with advancements it will certainly be a draw. Also, Bing's shopping feature is interesting; while I don't completely understand the logistics, if you search for a product in Bing's shopping site and purchase it through that link, you can sometimes receive money back for your purchase because you looked at ads somewhere along the way.

Overall, Bing is a decent, interesting, useful search engine. I see no reason not to use it. However, as the audience of non-internet savvy users falls away and the Google Generation takes hold, Bing is going to have to innovate it's special features at an astonishing rate to claim a place as the internet's number one search engine.