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Meet Bing...

If you don't already know, there is a new kid on the [Search Engine] block and his name is Bing.

Who is Bing?

Bing is a new search engine, provided by Microsoft, and is part of the whole MSN/Windows Live family of internet based tools.

Currently in Beta but probably destined to become a production application very soon, Microsoft have really spent some time and effort to get a slick looking and potentialy useful product to market.

Microsoft define bing as: 'Bing is a search engine that finds and organizes the answers you need so you can make faster, more informed decisions.'.

Well, if it does what it says on the tin, then I'm quite excited about this.

What can we expect from Bing?

Simply put, Bing is a search engine.

But we all know that just means it is a concentrated honey pot to attract consumers so sellers rent a stall.

Looking under the hood, Bing integrates well with your Windows Live account so if you use MSN or are a Microsoft Partner, you can just sign in and start to do things.

In a similar mould to the way Google manage resources, there is a layered approach to ccess but it is just a lick to get into additional services and content.

Once you are signed in, you have access to your account preferences (I think these are just reserved to Bing, not global for Windows Live), access to the Bing community and access to the pay-per-click section through Microsoft Advertising.

the advertising section uses something called 'Microsoft Ad Centre'. The model for this is just like Google pay-per-click. You sign up, you select keywords, you apear at the top.

We have searches for web, images, videos, news, shopping which links to http://www.ciao.co.uk/, maps that link to http://www.multimap.com/ but the most interesting thing I found was xRank.

Now this could be good.

So what is xRank? Well it's... no, I'll let Microsoft tell you what it is:

'xRank keeps track of notable people and puts them in order for you. We count Live Search web searches for movie stars, musicians, and other famous people. Then, we compile our findings into an insightful ranking formula that tells you who the world is searching for most. The result is a cultural snapshot of who's hot and who's not!'

The full help page for xRank is found here.

Now this isn't exactly anything new or innovative but what is smart here is that they have put relevant things together in one place and given it an identity. There is some genius affot, believe me...

What will the future hold for Bing?

It seems likely that Bing will be trying to go head-to-head with Google in the Global Internet Meta stakes.

We should expect some additional and comparable tools, such as analytics and webmaster tools, as well as some carefully considered innovations. Come on, Microsoft can be innovative too you know.

The whole concept of bringing things together as one big family of services isn't uncommon but a little re-brand has certainly gone a long way. The cynics will suggest this is just the old MSN site with a new frock on. It'll be using the same old MSN search engine at least.

What do I think about it all?

I love what Google have done for the internet and searching.

Ok, so they are geting bad press as a bit of a money-making machine but we can't argue that they have raised the bar for other providers to follow, plus massively increased our demands as consumers and given us far geater expectations for our on-line content and services.

I don't think Google will be knocked off the top step just yet but Microsoft have somethng comparable and accessable, albeit immature. Bing is more likely to chip a big chunk off Google's search engine market share than Chrome has done so far with Microsoft's browser market share.

It's still 0 - 0 in the big game, but the Microsoft Super-Sub is just warming up...

You can check big out at http://www.bing.com

 

 

Posted on 01/06/2009 by Ed Nice

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