Microsoft Bing Nibbles At Google’s Dominance

Jon • 10th Jul 2009 • news

When Bing was announced (before you could use it), I was hesitant to whether Microsoft could put together a product that could compare with Google. So once Bing was available to the public, I set it as my default browser search and browser homepage. I forced myself not to use Google for at least 1 week (I do a lot of searching for work).

To my amazement and pleasure, Bing performed admirably and I didn’t feel that I was loosing out by not using Google. I love the simplicity and beauty of the Bing homepage. The new high quality photo is a nice change from the white Google homepage.

Microsoft pushes Bing as a decision engine instead of a search engine. I have recently been interested in buying a new television. So I decided to give Bing’s decision engine to help me buy a TV. I felt that I didn’t get anything worse than what Google offered but at the same time I didn’t feel it helped me make a decision (because I still have not made a decision). So I decided to check out their “tour” and find examples of this “decision engine”. I learned that the “decision engine” when relating to shopping requires some pretty specific terminology for the shopping helper to appear. To be fair Google hasn’t gotten their shopping search to be any better.

The last “cool” feature that Microsoft has been pushing about Bing is mapping out when rates for flying go up and down. Also the ease in which to check the status of a flight. Here is where Bing really shines. I started playing with some trips I have in mind and it showed some really helpful information. It graphed out the different prices depending on the date and time of the flight. Another cool feature is if you search for “flight status”, Bing offers you a form that you can fill out and get that flights current status. Do that same search on Google and you get many different websites offering “flight status”.

Is Bing going to replace Google all together in my web searching life? No. But I will definitely use it consistently.

Microsoft Bing Nibbles At Google’s Dominance – The Channel Wire – IT Channel News And Views by CRN and VARBusiness.