Microsoft’s new Live search engine re branding endeavour “Bing” is now live and able to be previewed on bing.com. First impressions are that it doesn’t suck. It’s comforting and somewhat strange to say that about a Microsoft search engine product, but it’s true.
I believe that Microsoft have finally done it and Bing is a winning strategy and product, it’s about time. The refined search features, comparison features, constant scrolling on images and the cool hover video previews on videos is an awesome start.
Overall the feeling of the site is fast. Everything just loads quick, the background image on the homepage is very refreshing and the interface is somewhat more pleasing to look at than Google. People will no doubt still bash Bing, but they’re the people afraid of change and competition.
It’s kind of hard to believe that Microsoft made Bing, seriously. It actually provides relevant results unlike the failed Live Bing is based on. The results are perfectly broken down and offer useful suggestions and ability to extend your search.
Search results are attractive and not as boring as Google search results now appear to be to me. Could the fact that Google hasn’t changed the way it’s results are displayed in a long time be their downfall now that Bing is on the block? The search assistant is very useful and doesn’t degrade performance or take up precious screen real estate.
If I were Google, I would actually be worried about Bing. Although the user rate of Google won’t drop any time soon, Bing will do some damage. I’m going to use Bing instead of Google for a few months and see if I ever change back. I feel as though it is sufficient enough to fulfil my search queries to an acceptable level.
It is to be noted that Google is most likely already poaching idea’s from Bing and starting to create them for implementation into it’s own engine. This might make Google wake up a bit and finally do an overhaul of it’s image.
Go Bing yourself. Try it and you’ll be impressed unless you’re a Google, Apple or Linux fanboy.
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“Search results are attractive and not as boring as Google search results now appear to be to me.”
I honestly believe that search results should be as minimal and as accurate as possible. Google certainly provides this and is far above the competition with their results and simplified layouts.
Microsoft have re-branded products and tried new marketing techniques on failed products (ie. Windows Vista, Zune).
All Microsoft seem to be able to do is file IP suites and steal ideas from other developers. Microsoft hasn’t produced anything truly innovative in some time.
Don’t get your hopes up, Bing is nothing new, it’s just a prettier version of the old.
Ant,
You fail on this occasion. Microsoft Bing is a re-branding of Live.com, yes, but it’s much more than that from a technical perspective.
I’m not sure if you were aware, but Live Search offered pathetic results that were leaps and bounds behind all other major search engines.
Bing seems to have a more refined indexing process that is up too date. The results are fresher and I think an overhaul of the results appearance makes the site more interesting.
I’m not sure of your preferences, but compared to Google search results, I like the visual feast Bing offers.
I’m not a fan of most Microsoft products whatsoever. Windows Vista, Zune, Windows Millennium (the list goes on) – but this actually is useful.
bing is awesome, it’s been 5 days since I am using it, and it is a real alternative to google.
so lets bing it
“It’s kind of hard to believe that Microsoft made Bing”
Perhaps it’s because the interface is a blatant google rip off.
I’ve been sitting here waiting for a comment like that, and Bing! here it is. The interface is nothing like Google, it’s got a different interface for a start. Nice try, but maybe you’re feeling a little bit scared that the big scary Microsoft monster is coming to eat your precious Google’s attention and market share.
Maybe next time you should actually open your eyes. The Internet looks awesome when you open your eyes up apparently.
Google better watch out for this one. I’ve always believed that Bing will hit it big, as long as its improvement will continue (even though Microsoft was behind this, like you guys have commented), and fortunately my guess was right.
By the way, Google launched Explore. Haven’t really tried it yet. Just read it on the news. (http://blog.taragana.com/index.php/archive/google-launches-explore-google-search-being-weary-of-bing/)
I will tell you…Bing does rock ! I was just as skeptical as you guys were in the beginning…But you do have to give it to Microsoft this time around…The UI is refreshing and the results are just as good as Google’s if not better ! To me, it feels like, Google is the old micrsoft and vice versa…
Mike Spacey,
I’ve been using it a fair bit ever since it was released. It has pretty good search results, I like the image search feature and more refined alternative search menu on the left of the results too.
Google has grown on me; I’ve attempted to use Bing! but continued to find my self typing http://www.goog….. I don’t care for the visual’s Bing offers, I love how simple Google is. If I want to go see seals, I’ll look up pictures of them. My main focus on a search engine is where I type what I want to find, not looking at their website. Google offers the same thing Bing does, but in my opinion better, so why change? Also, in the Images tab on Bing!, I find it annoying to have to scroll over every picture to see the dimensions and website its coming from; its very useful that Google makes it simple and puts it there for quicker finds. But hey, we all have our opinions.
Sorry, Bing does NOT compare to Google in actual search results. You guys are ignorant to the facts…
I’m a webmaster with a new site trying to get indexed by Bing. Four months in, and their index doesn’t contain my site at all. Their “webmaster tools” claim my main page has been indexed (only ONE page from my site – Google indexed 9 pages), but a Bing search of my site (specific to my site’s url) with a perfect keyword used many times on my main page returns no results. Bottom line is, Bing is waaaay smaller than Google and can’t index nearly as fast or as many pages. Microsoft has admitted as much from it’s executives and engineers – Google is HUGE and indexes more information. Bing is trying to compete by making their results more “pretty,” not necessarily more accurate or in-depth. Typical Microsoft “strategy.”
MANY small businesses and web-startups have the same complaint about Bing… If you look in Bing’s webmaster forums (use Google to search them if you want GOOD results!) you’ll see post after post of “why has Google indexed my site in ONE MONTH, but six months later, I can’t find it in Bing AT ALL?”
With large websites, Bing compares well to Google results, but if you’re REALLY looking for deep or more obscure information, Bing fails miserably. You might think, “So what, small businesses can’t get seen in Bing?” But, I’ll remind you that small businesses employ MOST of the people in this country. If Bing is going to say “we compete with Google” but they DON’T index most of the US’s small business sites, that’s doing a disservice to the country as a whole.
It seems that Google is feeling perturbed by Bing. I’m sure people have noticed the recent change to have background images on the site. It may be because Bing does this, it may not be, but I find it interesting nonetheless. That said, I much prefer Bing to Google, and I say that as someone who has despised many a Microsoft product in the past (I’m looking at you Windows Me, you bastard).