Microsoft’s new Bing search engine was announced on Thursday and should be online and available to the public by the time this article is published. There’s been a lot of speculation about just what Bing is, and also about the implications of Microsoft developing a new type of search engine. Of course, Bing will also inevitably be compared to Google, but that’s really missing the point.
Bing is no Google killer; in fact it uses a different strategy than the world’s biggest search engine, and has a different niche to fill. In creating Bing, Microsoft set the bar pretty high: the company claims they set out to change the experience of online search, especially in the key categories of shopping, health, travel and local search. It is also no coincidence that these four categories make up the highest concentration of advertising revenue online. Microsoft is clearly going after advertising revenue that previously would have filled Google’s coffers.
But other than competing with Google for advertising accounts, Bing has very little in common with either Google’s search engine or raison d’être. Bing is designed as a more focused and niche-oriented search engine, and is optimized to produce the most relevant results within the specific (and quite lucrative) categories mentioned above. This is probably a smart strategy for Microsoft, as attempting to compete directly with Google in general search has been the downfall of many start-up search engines.
Microsoft has described Bing as a “decision engine,” and this denotes its focus on helping Web users find information relevant to their needs, particularly in the area of online shopping. Bing integrates several different features in order to help consumers decide between competing products. One particularly useful feature is the aggregated reviews that appear when searching products.
Bing displays both reviews and ratings from authority sites such as CNet, Epinions and others to help consumers get a quick snapshot of the features and popularity of a particular product. Conveniently, Bing also has a price comparison tab, which includes information on shipping and rebates or special offers.
The other area where Bing is likely to succeed is in local search. The same algorithms used to rank features and pull up reviews of products is employed here at the local level; so searching for a restaurant in a specific area will bring up reviews, directions and other relevant information which could be handy to the consumer.
Although Google is also expanding their local search feature, it remains disjointed in many ways. Microsoft’s attempt to consolidate local search in Bing sets the bar much higher, and could give Google a serious run for their money.
While Bing is not going to be the Google killer some have hoped for, it is certainly a different — and useful — type of search engine, and could become the preferred tool for online shopping research and local searches.
My biggest issue with Bing is the crawl rate. While I like the appearance and the results are fairly relevant, crawl rates are far lower than the other two players.
Comment by Duncan Lauder — September 24, 2009 @ 6:53 pm