Bing – A new search engine from Microsoft

Posted on May 29, 2009 at 5:23 am

Heard enough hype about new search engines? Recently, I wrote about Wolfram Alpha, a computational search engine, and previously I wrote about Cuil, the definitely-not Google killer.

So now we have another new search engine to unveil, this time from Microsoft. But doesn’t Microsoft already have a search engine called Live Search? Yes they do, but they’ll be killing that off in the next few days.

Bing is the hope and prayers of all Microsoft employees, especially Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer. According to Microsoft, it’s a “decision engine” that will help you make decisions about travel, health, and shopping.

First thing to note is that Bing is not going to give you results for normal search queries like Google. So what is Bing do that will make you want to use it? Bing’s main advancement is in semantic search.

For example, if you search for an xBox game, not only will you get a list of normal blue link results, but you’ll also get a list of related searches, which includes things like walkthroughs, news, errors, etc.

If you search for “Samsung LCD TVs”, you’ll get what is called a Guided Search, which means you’ll have options like looking at Reviews, Manuals, Repair, Images, Videos, etc that are directly related to the item you are searching.

Source: TechCrunch

The results are customized depending on what type of search you are performing: travel, health, shopping, news, sports, etc. For example, if you search for “Target”, the large retailer, you’ll see a list of on the left that includes Locations, Jobs, Coupons, etc.

Pretty neat eh! So what if you are searching for a new digital camera? Bing does a lot better job than Google does on this type of query. It gives you reviews, prices, images, and lets your sort by all kinds of stuff like camera size, affordability, speed, photo quality, etc.

Ever use Kayak.com for travelling? Well, Bing basically does all of that. It lets you find the best prices, the best times to fly, and lets you filter search results by airline, price, dates, and lots more.

Other nice features of Bing include the fact you can hover over a search result and get a preview of the text without having to actually click through to the page. Also, if there is a search that brings up a reference tab, you can click on it and it will bring up a Wikipedia article on that topic.

Overall, Bing will not be a game-changer, but it’s definitely a big step forward for Microsoft. Let’s see what happens as the battle ensues.

» Filed Under Industry News

Comments

4 Responses to “Bing – A new search engine from Microsoft”

Judy said on : May 29th, 2009 at 1:04 pm

Competition is always good in any marketplace. Personally, I like using http://www.dogreatgood.com as they donate to pet rescue groups from searching. I search, they donate!

Govind Kabra said on : May 29th, 2009 at 4:05 pm

This release from Microsoft is pretty interesting… its clear that search now needs to go vertical—provide specialized results for different intentions.

At Cazoodle, we try to build large scale vertical search applications—for niche domains, like apartment rentals, online shopping, or local events. All of these, certainly, will improve user search experience.

Bing – A new search engine from Microsoft « wolfram alpha blog Says:

[...] more here: Bing – A new search engine from Microsoft 29 May 09 | [...]
May 29th, 2009 at 10:10 am
Find most popular searches and topics on Bing Says:

[...] is Microsoft’s premier search engine as a replacement for Live Search. We have introduced it Microsoft Bing earlier, but this time we will look at how web content providers and SEOs could get statistical [...]
October 4th, 2009 at 5:22 am