When Microsoft launched their new Bing decision engine not long ago, it brought in a lot of hype. It began with a surge of users, like most new launches do, but some expected it to be crushed back down by Google, the current leader in search. However, Microsoft is proving this wrong, and as Mashable is reporting, their engine is growing steadily, gaining market share from the aforementioned search giant.Throughout July, Bing gained another 1.24% of market share, bringing the grand total to 9.41% so far, coming close to that of Yahoo! currently, before the Microsoft-Yahoo! search deal is in place. Interestingly though, this time Bing's gain didn't subtract from Yahoo!'s current standing; it was Google that lost out, going down in users by almost 1% over the month. Now, when Microsoft completes their deal with Yahoo!, and the former takes over the latter's search engine, they will control a pinch over 20% of the entire market (though keep in mind, these are statistics from StatCounter, and other websites may differ slightly).
We've included a chart of the last couple months, to show the trends of all the various companies and rivals:
Microsoft supporters (or perhaps Google haters) will be pleased with this, and we'll see in the coming months how Bing does during their battle in the search market.
Meh, it's good for anyone who want to see more fierce search engine competition, and the results of that.
Or is it just me that think the improvements to Google Search has, err, stagnated a bit? :p
Imagine what Google *could* do with all their resources and experience. I'm surprised they haven't written a Wolfram Alpha killer actually. Google Squared seemed to be more like a minor quick experiment.
Or integrate Google Search with Google Trends, so you see up or down arrows for search results depending on how they're rising/dropping in popularity, if possible. (I know Trends doesn't present its results that way, and it may not be doable, but Google ought to know how results are changing in popularity due to better/worse linkage, at least)
I still don't think I would use Bing for any reason. Firstly, Bing is simply commercialized. All results seem to be there because they have a price tag attached. And secondly, the UI for Bing is simply outrageous. When I go to a search engine, I go there to search. When I go to Google, I see a box where I should enter keywords. When I go to Bing, I see a beautiful scenery or photo, I admire the art, and I forget what I wanted to search! (It's happened to me quite a few times.
It's amazing how technology companies lose sight of their technology strength over time and concentrate on making a quick buck rather than improving the technology. "Windows" being a sample product.
Last edited by Jebadiah on 04 Aug 2009 - 06:35
You are right, it is good progress, things are looking up for Bing. They seem to be doing a lot to localise it as well, i have seen something recently for the Australian Market. I have also seen Google respond by copying the functionality of the image search from bing. Good stuff up ahead!
and itll grow faster and faster as more ppl get into it
and itll grow faster and faster as more ppl get into it
What's there to get into? Google's results are still more complete.
Yeah that's the Millau viaduct, a very impressive piece of engineering. Saw a documentary on the making of that bridge, it's mind boggling really. The road was sort of pushed/rolled out from each side and met in the middle. The two halves were only out of alignment by like a centimetre or something like that.
Regarding Bing though, yeah I like it too. Google is just quick, clean and simple though, which alot of people will not want to give up.
IMO that is a distraction to anyone who wants to use a search engine to look up something. I highly doubt that you went to bing.com just to look at the picture and hover over it for useful facts. Or did you?
You are right, I did not. But it was there and I went and read the facts. Only took about 30 seconds to read them all.
Google less cluttered? Really? Looking at those images, Google's results are too crammed with adverts in my opinion.
Google have gone for a simple UI and so have Microsoft. The only difference is, Bing's is beautiful, yet simple and Google's is ugly, yet simple.
http://i28.tinypic.com/2q80wol.jpg
EDIT: Never mind. Apparently the UK version of Bing/Google looks better than the US version. (Top Gear Top Tip: If searching online, use a UK version of a search engine to get better looking results!)
Last edited by Majesticmerc on 04 Aug 2009 - 16:14
I also don't like the interface, very hard.
Google is just, simple.
that's the bottom line
plus google is a well established name that everyone knows and it was pretty much the first to do search engine stuff well. so even if something is slightly better it's unlikely anyone will beat google anytime soon.
i like google because it's low bandwidth and simple to use. no fancy graphics etc etc.
plus google is a well established name that everyone knows and it was pretty much the first to do search engine stuff well. so even if something is slightly better it's unlikely anyone will beat google anytime soon.
i like google because it's low bandwidth and simple to use. no fancy graphics etc etc.
Every thing has a beginning and an end to it.. this is just the beginning. People know google cause its been around for a while. Bing doesnt plan on taking over 50+% of the share over night.. everything takes time.. and it is clean and simple. .
And why have a normally-attired server take your order, when you can have one with an abundance of "flair" buttons.
One man's eye candy is another's unnecessary distractions.
One man's eye candy is another's unnecessary distractions.
Fair point
You'd be surprised how many people want the websites they visit to look good.
How does the image detract from anything about the site?
This was true in 1999 when most people were using dial-up services and pages with lots of pretty pictures took lots of pretty time to load up. In 2009, most people have broadband so that issue doesn't exist anymore. Bing loads almost as quickly as Google, even with the pretty picture.
First: "most" of the world is not choosing Firefox. It's getting there, but it's not there yet.
Second: 1% is a huuuuge number of people.
Third: so what about who's been around longer than who.
Fourth: Yes, Yahoo using Bing will indeed mean Bing is used by more people. Try the crazy mathmatical concept of addition.
Fifth: Built-in browser search engine usage is not 100% of searches. Besides you're looking at it backwards: generally these people changed to Bing from Google, not people didn't change away from Bing. (And for the new PC owners, it suggests they were satisfied with the default. Whereas before they weren't.)
Now, wasn't that difficult.
2) 1% represents the number of searches that increased on Bing. That's out of the total search traffic online.
3) There's nothing "fictitious" about combining the search traffic of two providers
One example is changing the 'SafeSearch' option. This has always been easy and convenient on Live Search and Bing because the box to change the SafeSearch setting has always appeared straight away on the page you are on, with Google, you always have to go to a whole different page - the 'Preferences' page - to change the 'SafeSearch' setting, which caused 2 page re-loads instead of the 1 page re-load which was always experienced with Microsoft's search engine since Live Search. After Bing's release, Google changed this so the behavior works exactly as it has always done on Live Search and Bing.
It may be a small example, but it shows that competition will help both products and I look forward to seeing new features come out of both Bing and Google Search.
I've been impressed with Bing and hopefully Microsoft will keep my interest.
I use bing alot to and like it, only one thing that will keep my attention with google is their inbuilt extensions into the google search box..
try this:
1 US Dollar = ? Euro
Try that equation on both google and Bing.. Googles integrated addons are really helpful at times.. I use that currency converter alot!
Try this:
1 US Dollar to Euro
oh wait....
Quite frankly, I find it appalling and a really bad business decision on Microsoft's part.
The UK has video search, but it doesn't have PowerSet integration and some of the other features and user interface tweaks which make the US version so nice to use and so efficient in its results. Adding to that, the Hong Kong version and, I think, the Portugese version don't even have video search, as you've pointed out. It's disgraceful for Microsoft to limit their users in this way, especially when they want to compete so fiercely with Google.
I may be jumping the gun, as I haven't heard their reasons for it, but with a feature that isn't location specific, like PowerSet integration, how can they not include it in the UK and other countries? It makes the search results so much more efficient.
I still love Bing though and have noticed the benefits it has over Google, so I will continue to use the US version. I just really hope Microsoft realise that they can't compete effectively until they have all the features which make it so much better than Google available in all countries.
Anyways, go Bing!
:-P
Please keep this up, Microsoft and if you really wish to compete effectively with Google, maybe you'll consider stopping limiting your users in other countries? Eh? Maybe give us the same excellent search experience found on the "United States (English)" version of Bing, eh? Yeah? Maybe? Pleaseee?
I took a screenshot for proof: NSFW
Heck with Google!!
All in all though I REALLY love Bing. The search results are good, I love the preview capability, the layout is clean and easy to scan... Good job Microsoft!
The real question is did MS improve the search engine results ? Because Live honestly was not a really good search engine and far from something that could make me switch from Google. I personally think Google is not as good as what it used to be. Everytime i try to look for reviews of a product i get 10 result pages of stupid online shop and then some reviews.
I'll try to use Bing in the upcoming weeks but seeing has how everyone talk about how it looks like and nothing else i don't hold my breath.
Yes, I've mentioned it before but I've found the results are just as good and sometimes better than Google. Far less sponsored trash in the results.
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