A Closer Look at Bing.com
If you read my last blog, you may have noticed a throwaway line at the end that talks about how while Google strives to get even close to Microsoft when it comes to Internet browser market share, the situation is completely reversed when it comes to search engine market share. Google’s sitting on a pretty 73.9% of the search engine market share, up 25% from where it was just three years ago. Microsoft on the other hand is not even in second place and has struggled with 6-9% of the market share for a while.
So Microsoft launches Bing.com… And nothing changes. Okay, that’s not entirely true. Compete.com estimates that without including Bing, Microsoft (through MSN, etc.) had only about 6.5% of the search engine market share in June of this year and with Bing.com, it had about 9.1%. (Including Bing.com in the numbers also knocked Google down a peg—from 73.9% to 72.7%.)
But with Google sitting pretty at around 72-74% of the market share, a few percentages’ worth of increase in a single-digit competitor doesn’t really make a difference in the grand scheme of things. Then again, it could be a sign of change to come in the future. Just don’t hold your breath just yet! Let’s take a closer look at the pros and cons of Bing.com and decide whether it really has a shot of capturing more of the search engine market share.
Pros
· It’s the hot new buzz. Bing just launched in early June to a flurry of television and Internet ad campaigns. Meant to replace MSN Search, Live Search, and all those other incarnations of Microsoft’s attempt to get into the search engine market, Bing uses the newest Microsoft developments in search engine technology.
· It’s pretty? Perhaps not much of a pro, but the frequently changing background image on the bing.com homepage does make for an attractive search engine. (Although you can switch it off if it bothers you.)
· It’s connected with Windows and Internet Explorer. Just as past Microsoft search engines have been the default search engines on Internet Explorer in the past, Bing.com is sure to continue this trend in the future. More people use Internet Explorer than all the other browsers combined and some people may not care enough to change the default search engine. This is sure to give Bing a boost.
· It’s smart… sort of. That “newest Microsoft development in search engine technology” is supposed to be a quote “decision engine” unquote. This decision engine works nicely in a number of ways:
· Sectioned search results. Bing divides search results into sections like wallpapers, images, map, shopping, fansites, weather, etc. This can be helpful when you’re looking for information on say, something like a computer ram and you don’t want to be bombarded with links to a hundred places at which to buy one for the best price. Google already does this but admittedly not quite as well—Google has got more sponsored links to show you, you see.
· Less clutter. With fewer “sponsored links,” Bing doesn’t have to overload you with an additional 10 or so links on the first page that may or may not relate to your search engine term. The effect is that Bing is a more simplistic, less “look at me!” type of search engine, without links competing for your attention. But… They do still have sponsored links that appear sometimes.
· Optional page preview. I really liked this one. Hover your mouse to the right of any search result and you get a paragraph or two preview from the site as well as a list of (possibly) related links that appear on the page that might interest you as well. You can decide whether or not to check out a page without even seeing it.
Cons
· “Decision engine” decides for you. While all of us may appreciate a little less clutter on our search engine pages, we’re so used to it being in Google, our brains have learned to tune out those sponsored links, anyway. What really gets me is that the “decision engine” decides for you—great when you’re in a hurry, but you can’t always rely on its smarts. Maybe you want to see a store that sells an item even if you’re just looking for information on it. Bing may weed out the fluff, but they also weed out sites that may have been an interest to me.
· Links to dead sites. Not sure how Bing “decided” this, but I’ve gotten a number of links to sites that no longer exist through Bing that did not appear in Google search.
· Odd term-related choices. This is not to say that Google is perfect, but putting a search term into both search engines, it seemed to me like Bing brought up more unrelated choices—or choices that really weren’t about the search term, even if it was briefly mentioned.
Seeing the list of cons versus the list of pros, you’d think that Bing really was the wave of the future, but I don’t know. The cons were a pretty big black mark in my book. Plus I’m so used to Google and Bing’s offerings aren’t quite impressive enough to convert me to use Bing and only Bing—but I like that it’s out there.
Rumor is that Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer unveiled the reasons behind the name choice (besides that annoying “bing” ringing sound we hear in the commercials, of course): to match Google. In other words, Microsoft wants us to start saying, “Bing that for me, will you?” in lieu of the old “Google that for me.”
Rather than worry about getting a new definition for a word into the English dictionary, Bing first needs to worry about doing something so incredible that it really becomes an everyday part of our lives like Google. You have to give them props for trying with their “smart decision engine,” but frankly, I don’t think Google has to count its numbered days just yet.