(Bada)Bing! Demystifying Microsoft’s New Search Engine …

It’s been a busy couple of weeks in Search Engine Land. Microsoft finally launched a re-branded Live Search called Bing and geeks everywhere have been consumed with comparisons between Google, Yahoo and Bing ever since. Microsoft held a widely heralded Bingathon or live infomercial on Hulu on June 8…to mixed reviews.  It also spent $80-100 Million on an ad campaign – an amount that seems egregious by any one’s standards, especially when compared to the $25 Million that Google spent on ads in 2008.  Not to be outdone, CEOs Eric Schmidt (Google) and Carol Bartz (Yahoo) took turns swinging at Bing, accusing Microsoft of focusing on advertising rather than tech improvements. And it only got better.  Uber geek Michael Kordahi used a tool called BlindSearch for a more equitable comparison between the three search engines by removing all branding and logos and allowing searchers to vote on pure results alone. As of June 7, results showed that Google was in the lead, followed by Bing and then Yahoo.  Caveat: these results are at best temporary as it is probable that they are skewed by the number of technologists testing out Bing for a while who may eventually revert to their original engine of choice.

This media circus left me more confused than ever, so I decided to do a little test of my own. I decided to test Bing against Google, which is my default search engine.  I tested on topics that were of immediate interest to me* and this is what I found:

• Bing: it has a simple, clean interface and makes it easy to search by related searches and past searches with a single click.  Google offers related searches as well (but not past searches as far as I know) but it takes 2 clicks to get to them. Bing also gives the searcher the choice of searching locally or globally.  In comparison, Google automatically gives higher priority to local searches and does not offer the choice to searchers. While both engines allowed me to search for images, video etc., I liked that Bing made it easier for me to get to information on lactose intolerance* by categorizing it in buckets such as “articles”, “medicine” and “children”.  I also loved the Travel category in Bing and have already started using it to search for flights, hotels and travel recommendations.

• Google: in addition to the above observations, Google offers cool gimmicky functionality such as Timeline and the Wonder Wheel – it’s hard to compete with that. Google searches in general are more real time while Bing’s results tend to be 1-2 days old and it tends to perform much better than Bing (or any other engine for that matter) on more generic searches.  Google also brings an extremely strong brand, tighter integration with social media and a reputation for innovation all of which make it a formidable incumbent for any challenger.

So what’s the verdict? While Bing may have a chance to gain search share from Yahoo, it is unlikely to erode into Google’s share significantly in the long run.  It’s possible, even likely, that users will start going to Bing for travel ideas.  If so, it may differentiate top travel aggregators such as Expedia, Travelocity, Orbitz and Cheapoair from other sites even more** while potentially negatively impacting Yahoo Travel (currently ranked as a top travel aggregator).  It may even encourage price competition amongst them although I wouldn’t bet on it.  What remains to be seen is how Google reacts to this relaunch…and what Yahoo’s redesign will look like later this year when the media circus starts all over again!

- Parneet
Author and owner of the blog – belly of the bEAST

* My search terms were lactose intolerance since I was recently diagnosed with the condition and Sedona hiking as I will be traveling to Sedona shortly and need to research activities.

** Bing Travel acts as an intermediary and funnels traffic to these travel aggregator sites.

Tags: Internet Search, lactose intolerance, Search Engines, Sedona hiking, Social Media, Travel

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