You might not had a chance to experience the latest search engine from Microsoft. I have been using it for nearly a week now and I am pleasantly surprised with the search results and user experience. Microsoft describes Bing as a decision engine – much more than a typical search engine. Here is my run down on the new service and what this means for the information consumers.
I can attest that Bing is not your typical search engine as all of us came to experience by using Google and Yahoo. User Interface is well thought out. There is a right navigation that provides all related searches along with my search history. In a typical Google search, you have to click on every link to navigate to the link and see if the information is relevant. Bing has a feature called Hover next to the search result. You can simply rollover your mouse and it will show you the content of the link. This is definitely a time saver. Bing also have integrated video and picture in the search results. I searched for “Obama” on Bing. I instantly got a navigation menu on top right with options to look at Obama’ images, issues, Facts, Biography, Childhood, Speeches and Videos. You can also play the videos by just rolling over your mouse on the image.
Bing is able to understand my intentions for a search. So it is not just searching for information on the web but is searching for the information that I can use. For example – when I searched on “Swine Flu”, I got a medical information from Mayo Clinic. Bing is partnering with various content providers to address the information needs for specific domains. I searched for “Bos to Ind” with the intention of looking for flight options from Boston to Indianapolis. Bing came-up with fare predictor and informed me that fares are expected to rise along with a link to buy the tickets.
Bing also has a cash back feature – they will give you a cash back if you purchase through Bing.
I think that the idea and thinking behind Bing is great and execution is so far so good. It is a content rich decision engine with all the bells and whistles of a typical search engine. I do expect Bing to generate initial buzz in the search market place and attract more traffic. From a long term perspective, it depends on the execution in part of Microsoft and how they manage to keep delivering the rich and informative content.
Bing is definitely a game changer in the Search marketplace. Google is not going away anywhere and I fully expect them to try to counter this by copying some of the advanced decision features from Bing as well as adding more contents in the search result. Microsoft is definitely on the offence by directly taking the battle to Google’s home turf. Google is on offence for a while now with Google Apps and Android so it will be interesting to see how they react to Bing. Whatever the outcome of this battle of titans – information consumers will be the real winner! So it is time for all of us to enjoy the game…
Don’t be surprised - AT COMPUTEX , Taiwanese firm Acer unveiled its new Aspire One netbook sporting the Google’s Android Mobile Operating System. Acer aspires for this Android based netbook to be the first of several in its line-up, to complement its more expensive Windows OS offerings. It should be hitting shelves in the Q3 2009.
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