Bing Bang – But Fails To Meet The Expectations

The wrap has been taken off from bing.com, which is the brand new search engine launched by Microsoft. Formerly it was known as Kumo but it was rebranded and redesigned in an effort to replace Live Search. It was scheduled to be launched on 3rd June 2009 but it became live much before that which only indicates the sheer desperation of Microsoft to regain its lost ground. Speculation was rife that Bing will give Google a run for its money by exploiting its new features and advantages. Much has been said about the efficiency of Bing as a search engine. But here in this article, we will try to examine the authenticity of these claims for having a better understanding of Bing as a search engine.

Microsoft’s Claims

It has been claimed that Bing will not be another search engine rather; it will be a Decision Engine that will help the users to find accurate information faster than ever. It has been told that users will be able to make better decision while planning a trip, pinpointing local business, finding authentic information on health condition or making purchase. Besides that, it is claimed that Bing has all the unique features that are the hallmarks of a good search engine.

Checking the authenticity of these claims

It is the high time for us check the very base of these claims. Will it ever be able to give a tough competition to Google or it is just another example of Microsoft’s long tradition of delivering almost nothing after making promises to its users. Lets find out:

Interface

When you first view the interface of Bing, the very first thing that will seize your attention is its cool interface. Its interface is entirely covered neatly in wallpaper. Now, if you have ever visited ask.com, it seems to you that this concept is not a novel one. Some people even consider it as an unnecessary addiction in search engine.

Web Search Result

When Bing was launched there was a widespread rumor that it is going to challenge the dominance of Google by introducing a revolution in this domain. But when we start checking it, we were amazed to find more or less the same search result, if not exactly the same, like Live Search. We have tried our best to find out some difference but failed utterly to track any. Generating more text options simultaneously with the search result is certainly a new addiction but it is very much similar to that of Google Search Options. So where is the difference?

Image and Video Search

This is the only field where Microsoft has succeeded in delivering something different. Its image or video search is undoubtedly different from its earlier version. A number of options such as length, screen size, resolutions, source etc have been included:

But these addictions are not unique. You can find these kinds of options in Yahoo or in Google image search as well.

Not User Friendly

Furthermore, its search result is not user friendly. The number of results in a page can be increased to 50 whereas in Google or Yahoo, users can see up to 100 results at a time. This is certainly not desired from a Decision Search Engine.

Irrelevant Search Result

This is one of those shortcomings of Bing that no one will ever expect from a Decision Search Engine. It is not at all expected from a so-called Decision Making website to offer poor and often irrelevant search result. What is even more amazing is that none other than its archrival Google’s Mattcuffs has pointed out its error. Previously it was offering outdated result if you had search with the term “mtv movie awards 2009”.

However, the developers at Bing have rectified it. Just go through what Mattcutts said about this fiasco:

Matt Cutts: Congrats to @bing on the launch! Sad to see this not-so-relevant result at #4 for [matt cutts] though: http://bit.ly/4a8Q1Y

Bing: @mattcutts anytime you want to give feedback to @bing, we’re here. 🙂 I’m sitting with the devs at present.

Betsy for Bing Bing: @mattcutts I know you are disappointed in ego search stuff tonight w/ @bing, but try ‘mtv movie awards 2009′ and see what you get. 🙂

Matt Cutts: Ouch. The #5 Bing result for [matt cutts] is spammy too: http://bit.ly/B2r5F It’s a YouTube->WordPress autogenerated blog. 🙁

Matt Cutts: @bing okay. First web result was from 2008 instead of 2009, even with 2009 in query: http://bit.ly/SToK1 . Google nails it.

Matt Cutts: @bing but doesn’t it bother you that [mtv movie awards] on Google gives great news results and 2009 url, but w/Bing I only see 2008, 2007, ?
Bing: @mattcutts Uh – the first answer folks see is the news answer, not what you circled. Apparently twilight won. ^ba

Matt Cutts: @bing by the way, Twilight did rock. I’m not ashamed to say it–glittery vampires rule!! 🙂

Should we expect this kind of error from a Decision Search engine? Certainly not.

In conclusion, we can only say that Bing is far from being a perfect search engine. It is obviously better than its previous version but it is not a “Google Killer” that has been anticipated by most of us. However, it will be too early to make a conclusion about Bing. We need wait few more days for having a better understanding about its varied aspects.