Everybody has been talking about Microsoft's Live Search overhaul, named Bing, recently, and whether or not it would stand out in the search engine market. We here at Neowin have published an article, checking out all the different factors that would potentially lead to success. It's all well and good to talk about it and weigh it up, but the only way to really find out is by using it... something which is now possible.Bing.com is now available for everybody to use, as a public beta, with no sign-ups for invitations needed. TechCrunch has already tried it out for themselves, and has posted a list of things to try:
* An ambiguous Web search: "turkey" (do you want images, recipes, facts, or a map of the country? The topic guides in the left explore pane will help you narrow your search).
* A travel search: "SFO to JFK"
* Video search: "Simpsons" (hover over the thumbnail to play the video)
* Image search: "Rollercoasters" (notice the infinite scroll).
* A health search: "Sore throat"
* Shopping: "Digital SLR" (sort by price or brand, get average ratings and CashBack).
* Maps: "BBQ" (automatically knows what city you are in and offers up geo-appropriate results).
* News Search: "Bing" (what else?)
Of course, if rollercoasters and shopping aren't exactly your thing, you can always use Bing for more entertaining purposes. Additionally, for the Firefox users out there, you can pick up a Bing add-on from Long Zheng, for handy searching.
Be sure to go now and try it out, and report back here with your findings.
Its like when google first when live,
IT
JUST
WORKS!!!!!!!
thats a definite improvement from the old microsoft search pages where they wanted to foist all sorts of crap on the main search page!
I see they've even stolen google's "beta" tag - LOL
Oh wait...
I'm sure dvb2000 was referring to the fact that Google slap beta on many products and seem to leave it there forever. Look at Gmail for an example...
thats a definite improvement from the old microsoft search pages where they wanted to foist all sorts of crap on the main search page!
I see they've even stolen google's "beta" tag - LOL
Where' the word Beta anywhere on the Bing.com page?
I only see "Preview".
thats a definite improvement from the old microsoft search pages where they wanted to foist all sorts of crap on the main search page!
I see they've even stolen google's "beta" tag - LOL
Where' the word Beta anywhere on the Bing.com page?
I only see "Preview".
http://s44.radikal.ru/i104/0906/dc/381ec733c9e8.png
But Beta word has nothing to do with Google.
That REALLY is going to cut down on useful results and wind up returning commercial wallpaper site libraries. Which, as a matter of fact, I can find all by myself. What I WANT is the search engine to find things I CAN'T find...
That REALLY is going to cut down on useful results and wind up returning commercial wallpaper site libraries. Which, as a matter of fact, I can find all by myself. What I WANT is the search engine to find things I CAN'T find...
Huh? Type a word, click "images" and expand the SIZES on the left. It has small, medium, large, wallpaper. Google has small, medium, large, and extra large. I don't see any "exact size" anywhere.
+1
Try the Wallpaper setting. You'll see it ONLY returns 1920 wide images.
The other sizes are irrelevant. For example, in what world does anyone want only "small" or "medium" no better than thumbnail sized images? Or why would anyone define images of around 700 pixels "large"? Honestly? 8P
The result displaying in Web search somehow reminds me of Google... :o) But hey, it works!
No way to sort by size. (for example, sort by descending size)
As useless as Google size presets (large vs. wallpaper?! How do I find images LARGER than 1920x1080...ahem)
No way to search by min/max dimensions (re: Image > 3000 width)
I like the sub categories and the ability to search by landscape or portrait aspect, but with no way to prioritize high quality high resolution images over the utterly useless web thumbnail 250 pixel dreck the Internet is saturated with, this doesn't offer any better options for graphic design professionals, or hell, just about anyone who'd like multi-monitor wallpapers of a decent quality. 8P
While some of you may feel I am picking nits here, understand that Google and MS have this information in the database, and what search engines should be doing is making it easier for all of us to mine this data.
And yet, these are SIMPLE programming additions, and no one is doing them...
Last edited by excalpius on 01 Jun 2009 - 19:40
Im doing the same
Not for me.
1st:Metal Gear Solid - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
2nd:Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Last one: Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops (psp: 2006): Reviews
At least thats metacritic.com, but the wrong game.
For example, search Images for Charlize Theron and select Wallpaper and Photograph. Now, do the same with Google's Image search (same options, Extra Large, Photograph)
Google returns 5,000 results and those start to go wild after about 400 results. And note how the biggest images (3000+ pixels) are at least on the first pages.
Bing only returns 43 (HD res only!) images, and 1/2 of those aren't even of Charlize Theron. In fact, the last one is an Obama logo...ahem.
And MY desktop is 5000+, so Bing isn't searching on that size, haha.
Fair enough. Note that the vast majority of results on any of these pages are corporate/large site generated as well. Weak sauce.
Bing only returns 43 (HD res only!) images, and 1/2 of those aren't even of Charlize Theron. In fact, the last one is an Obama logo...ahem.
I get 2,450 results with Bing.
So far all is well, very fast, very tidy and no hiccups.
I am using the RC x64 as I type this and I love it
Maybe the hype is about more than just the pretty logo. Try searching and then draw up some conclusions.
The home picture is too beige, you think they would have had something more impressive on the launch day
The shopping link goes to a different web site (ciao)
The Maps search takes you to MultiMap (Microsoft owned but it still takes you away from bing)
There is no "Search Provider" highlight to add it to IE and reults don't make the IE RSS indicator glow.
The results are still not as accurate as Google's.
There is no local search.
Good points are the video search and the web slice funtionality on the news search (although it still is branded as kumo!
The search link for IE and other stuff will be turned on when MS takes it out of "beta". This is still just a preview and not final you know.
What statements have Microsoft made regarding this? Plans for international support?
There is: http://www.bing.com/?FORM=ZZFD2#
Find it on the homepage ''Make Bing your homepage" - In FF, it adds bing to the list of search engines in the search box drop down menu and asks you if you want to make it 'Default'.
UK has a blue coastal background.
Goto http://www.microsoft.com/windows/ie/search...m/runonce2.aspx
Under "Create your own"
Paste into the 1st box - http://www.bing.com/search?q=TEST&form=QBRE&filt=all
Paste into the 2nd box - Bing
Click Install
Gonna bing for few days and if it wins me gonna keep binging.
The only thing I found is this hoover popup on the right side, but more? What improve MY search?
It does calculations, just not that one. I tried "600 miles in kilometers" last night and it works fine.
I tried and it doesn't work.
works fine for me...
http://www.bing.com/search?q=600+miles+in+...eters&form=QBRE
600 miles = 965.6064 kilometers
at the top of the search results for me.
How ever when i swap them around (we use KM here) it works fine
http://www.bing.com/search?q=600+km+to+mil...m=QBRE&filt=all
Using the bing.com.au website you MUST spell 'kilometres' like I just spelt it.
However, on the US bing.com website you MUST spell 'kilometers'.
That's why it didn't work for you.
Google doesn't mind which spelling I use. +1 Google
Yes it does.
Log in with your Windows Live Account on Bing.com, visit http://www.bing.com/worldwide.aspx?FORM=WHLH , set it to US and it should remember it (did it for me)
If you want to try the US version without having to log in, then use this URL: http://www.bing.com/?mkt=en-us
I wonder if it will EVER catch up internationally. That seemed to be the Achilles' heel for a service like this. To pile on to that, MS also has a poor track record of international support; just compare Live Maps and Google Maps, for example.
Edit: Haha, you can't even set it to force doing "US-style" searches. So you aren't allowed to check out reviews for various products. Fortunately, there is Google Product Search for this.
Last edited by Jugalator on 01 Jun 2009 - 09:54
I guess people forget that what made google gain ground over yahoo back in the day was it's speed more than it's accuracy. If by the end of the week other countries have all those features I don't see what the problem is.
Google came along, and went the bare minimum route. A nice clean page with nothing but a search box, period. Of course as time went on they came to also give the best results but their practices have become questionable after they became a virtual web search monopoly. I hope Bing does well, it's about time Google had some real competition.
well they were saying wednesday so i'm hoping it will be fully working by then!
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/12205
nice addon
So far I'm happy with it.
Last edited by AnandVVN on 01 Jun 2009 - 12:53
Why would I want the results to differ? I don't expect Microsoft to charter flights for me.
How the information is delivered and presented to me is what is important. I was met with a page of results that looked near identical to Google's.
I would expect a 'next generation' search engine to not only read price data, but show me flight paths, times, changes, offer to help me complete my journey (where do I go from Heathrow?) and then give me a list of options. I'd want to collaborate with others; share the information then track what changes people make to them, leave notes so we can plan our journey together.
All Bing seems to give is a list of results with a couple of suggested searches on a nice background. Is this impressive? Not really. Will it beat Google? Not at all.
When this was announced and after that time, nowhere did it say most of these features would be US-only
I'm hoping this is temporary as it does say "Beta" for us and "Preview" for the US customers, but if Bing ends up in its current state where we are, then I will lose all faith in Microsoft as a fair company. Especially when they advertise a product and don't state that it is for certain markets only.
A major disapointment!
Even the images and vids... yet again the MS servers arnt getting as hammered as they will be as of yet
Shame the US version is VERY diffrent from the Aussie one though
Last edited by brent3000 on 01 Jun 2009 - 21:38
very fast
no ads (yet)
=
my new default search engine
I am a fan.
Shopping search still far behind of Yandex Market.
The interface is too heavy.
They have brought ajax into image searching results like Yandex, the only better thing is that it's full screen, instead of Yandex' one-row concept. But Yandex has grouping - kind of reverse searching, allowing to see all sources for the image sorted by resolution. In Bing's results I see tones of same images.
Still no reverse image searching from MS.
Maps turns to be a joke for a long time. They have no maps, but random bunch of fake streets. Imagery is very bad in quality, far worse than Google. They oftenly use same imagery from DigitalGlobe, but MS postprocessing standards are very bad.
http://www.bing.com/maps/default.aspx?v=2&...scl=1&encType=1
http://maps.google.ru/maps?hl=ru&ie=UT...024097&z=16
http://maps.yandex.ru/?ll=37.615964%2C55.7...17809&l=map
'Related' results are poorly notified. It turns to be a big mess of something i wasn't looking for. Type Hello and most of results you get are related results to Hello Fleet, Hello Schedule etc. They should highlight related results - slightly different background for example.
Results are limited in width. Looks quite narrow on wide screens.
Safe filter is tuned on by default - unacceptable for Europe!
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