Thought I'd give a little update on Bing, Microsoft's new search, opps, decision engine which, you recall, I reported on last week.
comScore, which tracks Internet use, has issued a report titled, "Bing Off to a Good Start in First Week of Search Activity". "These initial data suggest that Microsoft Bing has generated early interest, resulting in a spike in search engagement and an immediate term improvement to Microsoft's position in the search market," according to Mike Hurt, comScore senior vice president.
Of course one would expect a lot of people to sample Microsoft's latest foray into the search space. The true measure will come a few months down the road when we see if Bing has won some permanent converts. I'll check back and let you know. Why don't you try Bing and tell me how you like it?
Comments
I went to "Tour Bing" and there wasn't much there. Tried a search. It was okay but doesn't make me want to change from Google.
Thanks for the tip about the Sansa mp3 last Christmas. We all have one and love them.
I like it. The preview information is convenient and so is the suggestion list which is accessible without scrolling down. Continuous scrolling in image search eliminates bothersome page reloading. And videos play in preview when moused over. In the end Google and Bing will both eventually provide me with the same search results. User friendly features coded in one can also be coded in another, so I find it difficult to determine if one is better than the other.
One thing to keep in mind is that for the respective companies the real customer is the advertiser whom they are trying to convince to pay by having more and better information about us. Dana shared one of her experiences on her blog earlier. I for one do not like the idea of the big brothers taking my information for free and selling it with the presumtion that I will want to buy something. Don't they know I am broke? Maybe that fact is conveniently undisclosed.
Personally I prefer the model of search engine Cuil. Their search results are based on content and relevance not popularity. Also, they don't track and log user information, yet.
I like Bing better than the old Live search, and so far it is better than Yahoo in my book. I like the layout, some of the decision-making, although it doesn't seem to work perfectly every time.
Is it better than Google? I don't really know since I stopped using Google years ago. Yes, I know people assume that everyone uses Google, but not all of us. And I'm no Microsoftie, either, despite Bing's origins. I use a Mac for most of my work, although I am typing this from a PC because my mac laptop is down.
Now when are people going to question the odd relationship between Google and Firefox? Why does Firefox default to Google search. Remember when Google made a stink about Windows defaulting to MSN Search. Under pressure, Microsoft changed it, so why doesn't Mozilla change the automatic Google homepage in Firefox to ask the user to choose?
The answer, of course, is $$$ money. 85% of Mozilla's revenues come from Google. NO wonder, Mozilla won't change the default search, since it hurts their pocketbook.
Of course,Google has Chrome, which they rolled out to partly deflect from this Firefox situation.