Bing and Google sitting in a tree... S-E-A-R-C-H-I-N-G

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The search market is still dominated by the juggernaut Google and this does not seem likely to change in the near future. But what is it that is drawing people to use Bing over Google? What can it offer that Google cannot?

What is Bing?

With the slogan “Bing and decide” you’d be forgiven for mistaking this for the sounds of a sideshow alley, but it is intended to represent the proverbial light bulb going on. Bing is the evolution of Microsoft’s search engine: it has changed from Live Search, Windows Live Search, and MSN Search to finally rest on the simple and easy to spell Bing.

Is Bing a threat to Google?

The market share is still in Google’s favour, according to comScore, Inc. (a leader in measuring the digital world), with comScore qSearch analysis of the U.S. search marketplace showing Google is still clearly the majority of searches at 65.4 per cent in October 2009. Bing is slowly increasing its share of searches, being up 0.5 per cent from September 2009 to 9.9 per cent of the market, but is still far off being a threat to Google.  Even Yahoo!, Microsoft’s search partner, has not seemed to stabilise the numbers, with Yahoo! falling 0.8 per cent in October 2009. 

What can you get out of Bing that you can’t from Google?

The search market is still dominated by the juggernaut Google and this does not seem likely to change in the near future. But what is it that is drawing people to use Bing over Google? What can it offer that Google cannot?

The main selling point Microsoft is pushing for Bing is its ‘decision engine’: a powerful set of intuitive tools to make users’ lives easier.

The idea of the decision engine is to help overcome user ‘search overload’, with the goal being to provide a search engine that is simple, organised, and consistent.
But isn’t this something Google already does? What can Bing do for you that is different?

• Bing can provide direct tracking information when a user types the name of the shipping company along with the tracking number into Bing search.
• Bing can provide product price comparisons from a number of locations; however, these locations seem to be limited at present. It is good however, to note that Bing Shopping is still in its developmental stages.
• It is possible to get answers to numerous questions with Bing’s ‘Instant Answers’: for sports, recent scores or player statistics; finance, provide the company name or stock symbol followed by stock or quote for direct stock information; math calculations, support for a variety of math operations and functions; and dictionary definitions are as easy as following ‘define’, ‘definition’, or ‘what is’ with a word you seek the meaning of.

Bing is not being presented as another search engine, but as a versatile tool for users, as laid out in this press release:

"Bing is specifically designed to build on the benefits of today’s search engines but begins to move beyond this experience with a new approach to user experience and intuitive tools to help customers make better decisions, focusing initially on four key vertical areas: making a purchase decision, planning a trip, researching a health condition or finding a local business."

Not convinced?

In the end, if you cannot decide which one you would rather use do not give up hope! There is an answer... and it is to use both search engines at the same time, side-by-side:  http://www.bingandgoogle.com, this way you’ll never have to make the choice.