Meet Bing, Microsoft’s New Search Engine, by Danny Sullilvan, Search Engine Land (May 28)
Danny Sullivan, in his review of the web search part of Bing, opens with - "If you’re expecting Bing to be a Google-killer, reset your expectations. The most dramatic change, in my view, remains the name itself. "
+ Categorized Search and Web Groups - there is an "explore pane" with categories on the left, and in the main pane results from each category organizes as 'web groups". There are 20 results on a page - double the normal default. The categories, Sullivan says, look as if Microsoft is analyzing content and grouping, but they aren't - as Microsoft said that "With categorized search what we’ve done is take the related searches for individual queries and pop them up a level of abstraction to about classes of entries".
+ Related Searches - also in the Explore Pane - look very much like the ones Live Search had.
+ Search History - good for 48 hours at same machine. But a Windows Live member can "use of Windows SkyDrive folders and access your history from any computer". Silverlight users can save to own computer. Sullivan says that the search history is "incredibley rudimentary" compared to Google's.
+ Best Match - will show at top of page if there is one.
+ Quick Previews - mouse over to get excerpt.
+ Instant Answers - flights, movies, weathers - shortcuts
Also see Microsoft’s Bing Vs Google: Head To Head Search Results by Greg Sterling
Overall impression was that Bing is not a Google killer, but much better that Live Search.
"My overall assessment is very positive. Kumo, now Bing, has performed well and I’ve been satisfied with the results. There haven’t been any significant deficiencies or missing links (so to speak). While there have been a few occasions where I’ve found Google results to be better, the substantial gap that existed between Google and Live Search is largely gone with Bing."
Posted by Gwen at May 29, 2009 01:33 PM