I don’t usually blog about things unless I feel I really have something to add to the current discussion and in the case of Bing I don’t think I do. I haven’t had much time to play with Bing and evaluate it as it deserves to be, so the following is a short list of my initial impressions:
- Love the preview box that pops up with text
- Really like the links on this page in that text box too
- Related searches are good
- Interface and layout are nothing special
- Advanced search (which I use a lot) is nicer in Bing than in Google (Regional search option is cool) but where is the date filter?
- Sometimes Bing has far more results than Google for a search (“Surfboard shaping”)
- For that particular search I find the Bing results more interesting
- Image search is sssssslick. The filters work well, apart from “face” which isn’t always great
- I just don’t like the layout of the shopping section – it doesn’t fit with the others
- Video search is way cool – loving all the functionality there
- Maps is nice, it works just fine and at 1st glance has all the functrionality of Google maps – the “useful info” bit is a nice touch – shame it keeps crashing on me.
- Bing indexes sooo fast!
- I don’t like the logo
- Bing is softer on the eye somehow
My main question:
Why is it a “decision engine”? It is not helping me decide anhything at all, it’s delivering results, exactly like any other search engine.
Do I like it?
What’s not to like?
Do I prefer it to Google?
It’s hard to say in less than 5mins
Does it have a chance?
Why not. This is one of the best search engine Betas I’ve seen in ages.
“Why is it a decision engine? It is not helping me decide anhything at all?”
Try searching for “Google” in Bing. It only brings up one result. Bing tries to figure out what you’re searching for, and “decides” what to display. Same for product recommendations: if you ask it a question, Bing will help you “decide” what you want. Bing is not a straight up keyword matching search engine, it is a decision engine that tries to guess what you want.
But that’s user intent right? Where is the decision making? You mean I decide? Then that’s me not the engine.
Maybe it’s just more marketing hype than anything else (they have a pretty slick promotional video at decisionengine.com). Bing does pull in results from multiple vertical search engines and displays them on the front page, more so than Google. It’s definitely more than a straight up web search.
For me this is straight up web search, and nought more. Duck Duck Go pulls in data from multiple engines as well, and that’s not a decision engine. I agree about the marketing though!
regardless of functionality and layout, the name is one that sticks. It is simple and also associates a result popping up on your screen (makiung a bing sound) – BING – here’s your results.
Hope that it will attract some more users than its predecessors live and msn – competition is always good.
i love bing ever. most my keywords rank on bing and not on google
“…but where is the date filter?”
Indeed! This is the only reason I still use Google. Hop on it someone. The market is open.
“…but where is the date filter?”
Indeed! It’s the only reason I’m still using Google. I can’t do without it now that I’ve gotten used to eliminating all the irrelevant information from 1000 years ago (aka, last month in cybertime.)