Bing a Better Way to Search from MicrosoftPerhaps the best thing we can say about Bing, Microsoft’s new foray into the search arena, is that it might just be . . . well, pretty good. Bing might not prove to be the silver bullet Microsoft is hoping for to slay Google, but it’s definitely a welcomed step in a new and interesting direction.
According to Microsoft CEO Steve Balmer, as quoted by the Wall Street Journal, “search has not been a dynamic category in terms of innovation,” and he’s exactly right. For years now, search has evolved primarily in one direction only: a collection of links relating to a particular search term based on whatever algorithms the search engine uses to produce the results. But therein lies the rub: while search results themselves are often very useful, often they’re not useful at all. Traditional search engine results only give you a clue as to what may lie just over the web horizon. Because the search engine can’t get into your brain to discern what you’re really looking for, more often than not, to find what you’re really looking for, you have to pick and choose from the search engine results yourself.
Bing aspires to be a search engine for finding, not merely for looking. For now, at least, it accomplishes this via a rather low-fidelity method, by categorizing search results into groups based on what you might be interested in when you search for a particular thing. For example, searching Bing for “Porsche 911” returns categorized results based on reference material about the Porsche 911, “problems” with the Porsche 911, Porsche 911s for sale, Porsche 911 dealers, Porsche 911 parts, Porsche 911 videos, and Porsche 911 images. Thus, Bing attempts to anticipate user intent: a user looking for information about a specific problem he or she is having with a Porsche 911 could simply click the “problems” link, and be served with a whole host of links with information about Porsche 911 problems. Users can also check out searches related to the one undertaken, and search his or her own Bing search history.
Bing’s not perfect, of course, and at this point, it’s decidedly not an out-of-the-box Google killer. Google, after all, has not only found its way into the common lexicon as a verb, it’s fairly equated itself with the concept of searching the internet. To most internet users, “googling” something on the internet is second-nature; absent a truly compelling reason to do so, it’s not a habit Bing will cause people to break. Right now, Bing doesn’t seem to have that sort of cachet, but who knows? Time will certainly tell. At the very least, Microsoft deserves major credit for innovating beyond basic search and taking a few well-aimed shots at Google’s search catbird seat.
And they may even have scored somewhat of a hit. Is Google Squared Google’s counterpunch to Bing?