Microsoft`s Answer to Google Search - Bing - What Bing Brings

The most notable change (so far) that Bing brings is its name. Microsoft is known for its simple and utilitarian names (Live Search). By choosing a nonsensical name such as Bing, Microsoft is treading into largely unknown territory for itself. Many experts across the industry herald the change, as it is a catchy name with international appeal. Others decry that the name has nothing to do with the product and will require all that much more marketing investment.

Microsoft is branding Bing as a “decision engine,” rather than a simple search engine. This is illustrated by Bing’s numerous features that attempt to integrate information with search results. This follows a recent trend for search engines to begin including information along with search engine results. Users like to see exactly what they are looking for as soon as possible. If Bing is able to satisfy this demand better than Google is, then it is possible that it could gain a foothold in the market.

Bing integrates such information as medical advice, news, product reviews, and page excerpts seamlessly with its search results. The medical advice is a new offering that may be handy to many. It pulls information from top medical websites and puts it right at the top of the search results, increasing the likelihood that people do not have to dig down into websites for what they seek.

From an early review from CNet, Microsoft actually offers better news results than Google does. Bing’s results are more up to date and more accurate. This could prove to be a vital feature in cutting into Google’s market share.

Bing also offers the ability to view a text excerpt from each of the search results. By hovering your mouse over a result, you will be able to view some of the text from that page. This should speed up the search for information, as users can determine faster whether a site is relevant or not. It is also a huge boost to dial-up users, who will not have to wait to load each page, only to find that it is not what they were looking for.

Bing also seems to offer a better listing of “related search terms” than Google does. While most engines now offer this, most of the time, the related terms are not that helpful. However, Bing has apparently revolutionized the technology and actually made it a tool that could provide exactly what you were looking for without you realizing it.

Interestingly, Bing actually does a better job of presenting video results than Google does. Bing lists them in a format similar to the way in which Google Images currently does, while Google itself has an outdated vertical listing. Google will no doubt address this issue, but for now Bing has the upper hand in an environment with which Google should have no issues.

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