So it has been a year or so since Microsoft launched Bing with a $100 million advertising campaign and we were wondering who is now using it.  Does it really compare to Google?

Well in a word – No.  Not in the popularity stakes.  However if you take a closer look at it, Bing certainly has some advantages.  When Microsoft launched this site the marketing concept was that current search engines (read: Google) were inefficient as most people had to refine their search several times before getting a decent result.  Bing, which is an amalgamation of  Microsoft’s previous search engines such as MSN.com  and Live.com, touts itself as a more accurate search engine, bringing back less, yet more precise hits. One of the marketing angles was to call itself a ‘Decision Engine’ rather than a ‘Search Engine’.

When the site first went live they demonstrated how a search for ‘Facebook’ on Google would bring back literally millions of results, whereas Bing would bring back one – the official Facebook site.  This was because the algorithm for Bing was designed to be intuitive and know that you were really only searching for one thing.  A current search for Facebook on Google and Bing shows that this has now changed.  Both sites now bring back the same top 3 results with Bing listing 22,200,000 results and Google listing 2,850,000,000 results.  Certainly Bing has refined the search more – however, let’s face it when we are talking in the millions or billions of results – does it really matter?

When you look at the changes that Google has made in the past 12 months, you have to figure they have been taking notice of Bing.  The sites appear to be in a battle for the best new features, which can only be good for the rest of us.  For example, both Bing and Google offer a Maps feature which have personalised setting options for an improved user experience.  Google now integrates overlayed images with user-submitted photos into the Street View.  What this means is when using Google Maps and looking at a typically tourist location on street view (looking at actual photos from the ground rather than aerial shots) you may notice small boxes scattered around the image.  These are photos taken by real people and uploaded to Google Maps.  Not a bad addition if you feel like doing a bit of travel from your desk.

Bing has also added a personalised experience to their maps which is a Facebook Connect application.  When you add this option Bing connects to all your friends on Facebook and reads the home city they have listed in their profile.  It can then bring back a global map showing you where all your friends are located, even allowing you to post on your Facebook wall from the Bing Map page.  If you have friends living overseas, it could be fun to check out their local area.  Keep in mind though that by doing this you are allowing Bing access to all your Facebook details, so be sure you don’t put information on Facebook that you wouldn’t want the world to know.

It would appear that Bing is trying to be the leader in integrating Social Media and Search Engines.  Another feature that incorporates social media is Bing Local Twitter Trends Map.  This application lets you search the top ten most tweeted terms in major cities right now, should that be of interest to you.

From a visual perspective Bing needed to differentiate it’s image from the famously unadorned Google homepage.  Bing has a daily image as the background which contains ‘hotspots’ that appear when you move your mouse around, giving you a snippet of information about the image.  When clicked on, this will take you to a website offering more detail on the image.

Both sites offer Pay Per Click advertising options, although as yet, Bing hasn’t got the traffic to compete with Google’s results to this type of paid advertising.

Competition is good, and it will only ever benefit the public if Google has a threat to their dominant market-share.  If any company is going to achieve it, you’d have to like Microsoft’s chances.  However, with many people not even realising Google is a brand – rather thinking it is the name for search engines, it will be a hard battle to change the general mindset.  Imagine saying ‘just Bing it’ instead of ‘just Google it’.  It certainly can happen, as one of the marvels of the new age of global communication is that new trends take over faster than ever before.  Google has been a house-hold word for less than a decade.  Personally, that is what I find so exciting about the internet, watching to see what will evolve next.

If you want to compare results between Bing and Google, this site is worth a look – http://www.bing-vs-google.com/ – it allows you to complete a search on both search engines simultaneously on the one page.

To help get your business online and connecting with your local customers contact us at info@webcrumbs.com.au or find out more at www.webcrumbs.com.au

Some information was sourced from

http://blog.searchenginewatch.com

www.mashable.com

www.abcnews.go.com