3 Times a Charm? - Bing

[Tower - Justin]

Has anyone had a chance to check out Microsoft's new Search-engine? (Bing).

I think it was just released last weekend. I have to say I like it! It's very clean & simplistic, seems to take the same approach as Google - But they are not going directly for Google...I hear they are chasing Yahoo. (I also hear they are doing a damn good job so far)

This is the 3rd time Microsoft has re-branded itself (MSN Search, Live Search, & now Bing)

I don't know if I really like the name...but maybe it will grow on me.

The background images they use are not static, they change...but I'm not quite sure what the intervals are yet, every 24 hours I imagine...probably following respective time zone. They are of high-quality, scenic pictures - reminds of something out of a National Geographic magazine...a nice touch I think.

I read an article entitled "Bing Porn Glitch" which went on to say how ppl could use Bing's video search option to easily access pornographic content, without having to further verify anything. So I thought I'd give it a shot. 1st thing I noticed was that it has a preview function built in, meaning you can just hover over video-result with your mouse & will start playing (Video & sound....awesome!) 2nd thing I noticed was yes, explicit videos are very easily-accessible...so be weary of the children.

I haven’t seen anything that says "Wow, Google, yahoo...etc can't do that!" It doesn’t seem so much like Bing has revolutionized anything - but more like they are...catching-up, but it’s a good start in my opinion.

Don’t know too much about the algorithm-use yet, if its comparable to others...but I did notice you get different order of results than you would with Google/Yahoo - hard to say if more relevant or not...I'll do some more reading.



In the meantime - Whats your take......?

[Chips]

I rather like it, not that I use it much except to check on my own sites rankings, but it is a great deal better than the old Live search. I have always ranked well and get rather good traffic from Live, maybe it will increase hits to me once people start using it more. The jury is out as far as I am concerned.

[slotplayer]

I did notice in my stats some visitors for my retail site using it.

[Dominique]

I quite like it and have been using it. They also have some good TV ads running. I am seeing better traffic from it already.

Bing - as in Bing cherries? The big sweet black ones? Bing Cherries are the best cherries - maybe the name came from that.

[Doolally]

I get the same results with Bing as I do with Live. I wonder if it's because I'm in the UK and it's not fully rolled out yet.

I have a problem with the name too. Every time I type it I automatically add an "o" at the end.

[AndreS]

The UK version is still in beta and not all features that are finished in the US version are available yet in the UK version. I think I remember reading somewhere that it was a couple months away, but I could be very off on the timing.

[Anthony]

I am pleasantly surprised by bing.

It is a vast improvement to msn/live.

[Dominique]

I love bing, I made it my default. Saves a lot of search time because of the mouse overs.

[raphnix]

With much publicity Bing's gaining so far, it's a good idea to start investing with the potential traffic we can get from this new SE.

[Focalclick]

From a usability aspect, I like how they have the related searches at the top of the page rather than at the bottom like Google does. It's pretty to look at but much of the stuff they are doing, Google has been doing for quite a while.

It may pick up steam with all the advertising they are doing and the nice interface it provides. It should be interesting to see if they work on advancement of the product.

Mark