Fair play Microsoft is out there now promoting their 'new' search engine bing. From a first look, not too bad and some neat new features like site overview and links summary. The name change does seem like a step in the right direction to dilute the fact that's its run by a big old corporate Goliath behind the scenes. I'm just not too sure how much raindrops on leaves will keep me as entertained as Google's ever-changing themed logo.
Their advertising model with Sponsored sites work pretty much the same way as Google's sponsored links (Adwords) and the highly praised 'related searches' box seem to have a bit too much spin on in terms of enhancing user experience. YouTube videos start previewing on mouse over and it does look a lot cleaner overall.
Most importantly however how is Microsoft is planning to get the traffic in a Google dominated market?
Well for one they have invested more than $60 million in a massive PR & marketing campaign that within the first few weeks of bing's launch have seen a top level shift in search volume from Google to bing. We are talking low single digit figures here, but so far so good.
What it boils down to then is how the user experience differs from Google and how Microsoft is going to compare on its other search engine based products and it's Adcentre. There is to date only little data about bings crawler technology and its left for us to find out whether it produces higher relevant search results for each query.
In the end bing finally here and we can be sure that Microsoft will through enough money at it to last for a good while. The question remains whether bing will actually be able to compete with Google, but Microsoft has got very little (traffic) to loose and enough cash to try it. Competition is healthy at the end of the day and as long as it's handled fairly should leave use users/consumers with added value.
for more reviews view:
TechRadar.com
Cnet.com
PC Mag
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