The world is abuzz with the news that Microsoft is about to launch a serious Google competitor somewhere in the next days. Unfortunately Microsoft has gotten such a bad rep when it comes to launching, and growing, web services that it is hard to find an optimistic blogger out there.
Is there anyone in the world who thinks that Microsoft’s new Search Engine, named Bing, will seriously compete with Google?
Of course they have a 100 million dollar ad budgets to inject their new service into our brains but that only sets expectations higher. Because no matter what their ad budget is, no one will ever consider leaving Google unless Bing’s results are substantially better than Google’s.
Peter Drucker famously said that “For new technology to replace old, it has to have at least ten
times the benefit.”
That means that Bing doesn’t have to be twice as good as Google but more than 10 times as good before people will switch. Somehow I just don’t see that happening.
It does make me very anxious to try out Bing. Somehow I can’t imagine Microsoft going through all this trouble for a mediocre product. The must have SOMETHING that makes them this optimistic.
If they don’t, all Bing will be known for in a few months will be it’s acronym: “But It’s Not Google”
An important question is: What exactly does “better than Google” mean?
Search is a multi-dimensional problem.
“Better” in terms of “more relevant” results? For me in most cases Google returns relevant results. At least I don’t know whether there are *more* relevant results as I don’t compare Google’s output with anything else.
“Better” in terms of “better graphical representation of the results”? Google’s simplistic approach appeals to me – and to many. It has become sort of the de-facto standard for presenting a list of textual results. Can it be done better? Likely. It’s just that people inertia to change their viewing habits might be in the way.
“Better” in terms of “more integrated APIs”?
Wolfram|Alpha does a fairly good job for a very much specialized problem of search. I’d not even call it a Google competitor. It’s complimentary.
So it remains to be seen how Ballmer sets the stage for Bling. It’s the news industry which forces Bling to be a Google competitor these days.
Maybe Ballmer announces the acquisition of Yahoo!’s search business?
Let’s see. Good post, Boris.
There are lots of things that Microsoft has to improve before anyone will take them serious. And that’s not only for the searchengine itself but also for the organisation.
A year ago I posted in the Live Webmaster Central Forum a message with a question about a site getting indexed badly. The Forum was meant as a platform to report problems to Microsoft employees and get help . After about a year later, 6 posts later I didn’t even got a serious reply but some basic answers. I mentioned those basic answers before that in my own post that the problem was not related to that problems with good arguments. So they didn’t even read the problem, but just try to get rid of it asap.
So if Microsoft wants more users, they have to take them seriously. Otherwise; stop wasting money in those projects. Like a dejavu with Microsoft Live Search, that was also a Google-killer… yeah right.
I’m trying to get rid of microsoft as soon as possible, and I’m trying hard to bad I’m stuck with windows, not because I like it it is because some programs I use need it…
So I try to avoid the use of microsoft product as much as possible. The only good google conccurent should be an open source one, like firefox is for IE and Chrome. Until then google will be the best at it, hell there not evil Microsoft is evil itself.
I think it is a good case Microsoft is trying to be a serious competitor for Google. Right now Google is dictating a lot of users how to search and act on the web. Don’t get me wrong, the services Google is providing are great, but it is never bad to welcome new players. In any case it ensures that Google will look closely to it’s search engine, which can be a good thing for us users:-)
Doron
http://www.peoplesplayground.nl
Call it Bing/Kumo etc etc, there is no way it’ll succeed because it is just lipstick on a pig. Balmer – I suggest you wear a cap as the lil sun we get in Seattle is frying you brains and you are taking this company down into the gutters; “Balmer Is Never Gonnawin”.
One of the great feature of bing is auto compete feature, which is similar to Google, though being a blogger I would like to see some quality result from
Bing rather then people who game SEO and come at the the top of Google Search result. Lets hope for something new and useful this time from Microsoft
Is that a BSOD on the picture :P?
Yeah, but that’s too UNIX-y. We wouldn’t want to insult UNIX systems by relating them to bing, do we?
Personally, I think “BING” should be an acronym for “Bing Is Not Google.”
@Jorijn Smit: right, is it NT4 or XP “Blue Screen of Death” ?
Surface display is very cute with BSoD ^^ .oO(spleen light in our room)
UPGRADE you looser, or just get firefox/safari/chrome/opera. Outside your window the web is moving forward, but halted by people that don’t adapt.
Wonder why m$ got a bad rep…
Woke up this morning to find my default search engine in Ie 6 changed from Google to bINg and no way to change it back.
Same here. The search box and pref in the registry show the Google URL, but any search terms that are submitted via the address bar are going to Bing and not to Google. Quite a few of my users assumed that they got hit with some sort of Spyware and they’ve been harassing the help desk. Nice job Microsoft.
I have some suggestions for what “bing” should stand for, but they aren’t really suitable for a public forum.
Dolt!
Bling is far more commecial than prior MS offerings. If you are looking for chats, dates or music it may be useful. It’s aimed at Paris Hilton types.
If you are looking for information, use Google.
Try this: Search in Bling for “remove bling”. Then do the same in Google. Guess which on does not return a relevant result?
Is that a BSOD “blue screen of death” on the surface machine which the happy couple is all excited about? ;-)
what everrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
yeah this is bing and after some time hope this will beat google.
gooooooooooooooogllllllllllllllllllllleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
@aks: Why? So they can sit on their opportunistic arses longer? Hell,has there EVER been an instance where a new product isn’t just a rip-off and/or an attempt to short change a product by releasing an inferior product, which all the microsoft fanboys lap up? And before you accuse I’m not a fanboy of any company, I just hate microsoft.
PS. Bing=But Its Not Google
I'm definitely diggin' it. Why? Because it's not google . . . BING (no, I don't want to install chrome, no, I don't want to install the google toolbar, yes, I am a social studies kinda guy).
Dec 7, 2009
BING – Homepage shows aerial view of Pearl Harbor with lots of links to refresh me as to why the day will indeed live in infamy.
Google – Nuthin' zilch nada.
Wanna explain that one to me. Been using BING since and have never looked back.
I like bing for it is not only a search engine but a meaning finder. I just asked bing to use tarry in a sentence and the results were amazing
GOOOOOOOOOOOGGGGGGLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLEEEEEEEEEEEEE
GOOGLE IS SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH BETTER BING…. OR WHATEVER THIS WEBSITES CALLED NO1 CAN TOUCH GOOGLE!!!!!!<3
bing is not google… I hate BING you fuckin suck your mommas balls… :D and google was first so ya walk the fuck away… Yay I went there so dont be a pussy and cry to your mommy. :P At least I can lick it.
dudly u dope i think ur ugly and harry potter is more cool than u
I hate Bing. It's so annoying. They say like, 'see what search overload has done to us?'. Bing's WAY worse.
its “because its not google”
this is very siily
Because it’s not google.
Bing rapes google
BING YOUR SO FAT GOOGLE RAN ROUND YOU twice but still manged to beat you
Google is a verb
BING is a joke
Google FTW, google is so good i have somtimes searched google on another search engine ;P i refuse to budge to any other search engine even if its a stupid 100 million doller one. Enough said.
ur a loser
sup
Lol better than google
Everyone says BING is so bad, but i dont see why its so bad. I use google, but i guess most people use it because its been going for much longer and people were already using it.
i thought i was ”because its not google”
An absolutely awesome post, I was writing on the same subject and I came across you site. I took the angle on where Bing was formed from rather than where its going.
I know its a little later on now from when you posted this but do you think they have succeeded anywhere? Or have they made another search launch mistake?
I would like to see a follow up post if you have time?
gooooooooooooooggggllllllllllllllleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee