Microsoft Bing vs. Google

Posted for Michael Howard

Microsoft has launched its new search engine entitled Microsoft Bing, which will be competing against ‘the giant’ Google.  I understand the need for healthy competition, but Google owns 64% of the market share in terms of search engine sites.  However, Microsoft Bing is innovative, and if it is marketed correctly, they might be able to compete against Google.

Bing offers a unique way for searching, by searching for ‘best match’ as opposed to searching by popularity.  Bing will also feature more information available for viewing, and boasts it will be organized.

The article can be viewed at the following link:

http://www.cio.com/article/494015/Microsoft_Bing_Five_Features_That_Give_It_a_Chance_Against_Google
I believe that Microsoft is on to something with the release of Bing, but time will tell whether or not people catch on. 

Do you believe that Microsoft can compete with Google?  What uphill battles do you foresee, with this daunting task?

Comments

[Sean T. K.]

I just learned that MS 'LiveSearch' is being replaced by 'Bing'. I hopped onto it and typed in a few search items. The search is pretty fast first of all and I do like the way it categorizing the searches a little different.

Enough to make me change from Google? Not yet anyway. This is somewhat related to the 'change of practice' topics spoke of in lecture. What it boils down to is that I right away don't see the benefit of me changing search engines. There is no grave advantage that immediately lures me over to Bing. Right now my mind is programmed to think 'google' for my searches. It is tied into my IE browser so that I don't have to actually type 'google.com' to search something. I'm sure there is a way to change this if I wanted to, but again I am not inclinded to do so right away.

Let's not forget, even if Bing does slowly begin to take some of the market, you can best believe Google's search engine will come out with a newer better version of its engine as well. Not sure if Microsoft will catch up to a point where it will have a dominant market share in the search engine market - atleast not anytime soon.

[Tariq Vora]

I just used Bing, it works nicely. But I don't think it will make a dent in Google's armor. Google offers so much more with its search with other applications. I do like Bing layout though. I use Google for so many things that it will be hard for me to switch to bing. Gmail, Groups, Google talk, patent search, etc. When I find Google is not doing the job for me, I will look elsewhere.

[Nachiket Mehta]

I don't see much improvement in Bing over LiveSearch. Microsoft's goal seems like providing better integration with their Live services like maps, hotmail, etc. This kind of integration is nice but I don't see anything new in their search algorithm that helps me find anything any faster than google. I would like to see either one of these to buy WolframApha and do something with that. I think that Google has enough search data and server power to help them out. The field of machine learning is really picking up and that's nice to see. I like Google's approach of introducing search result ranking system. They want to involve users into the searching. I think that searching should be converted into a wiki community type of concept. I hope Microsoft involves searchers more in their search mechanism.

[AY]

Presence in search market gives the power to capture what users are browsing and are looking, which in turn gives control to the companies to device new products, being in the search market is a window of the opportunities. Search is a big space and there is a good need for a solid competitor for Google. Penetrating Google market share is difficult, but not impossible, Microsoft needs to ensure that the performance stays on top, this is what Google is good about, faster results set, on public searches, people don't know what they are missing, what matters is how fast the results are displayed.

[Ayesha Boyd]

From my personal experience, google has a fast and modern search engine. Whether or not anyone can compete with Google it is going to be hard considering the things that continue to emerge out there.

[Oli Shields]

As stated by Tariq, I use Google for more things than search now (picasa, google docs, gooogle calendar), so it is unlikely I'd switch to microsoft - I think the battle between Google and Microsoft and others will be over a wider range of "collaborative engineering" tools, and even in areas such as operating systems for cell phones. In particular I'm interested in learning more about MS Groove and Sharepoint for desktop sharing and intranet portals.

[Jarmila Alanez]

We've been using Google search many years ago. Many people have it as a default search in their computers. Also, the preconception we have that Microsoft is entirely commercial will lead us to think that they want to charge per consume. Therefore, I think that Microsoft is going to have a very hard start in this raise against Google. Although, I can assure that if they offer a better and renovated product than Google it will at the end position itself in a good spot in the market share. And, if they make sure that their marketing campaign is going to send the right message of a free search solution that would give more benefits that Google.
As I was reading in the article that they offer 5 differences against Google, I would really want to see how it really works.

[Sivakumar Manickavasagam]

Microsoft claims that it's not just a search engine it's a decision engine ( i hear this all the time from 103.5 kiss FM while driving -:)).
Though i am addicted to Google, i went and tried few searches related to travel and vacation. Believe me it's no different from Google. I don't buy that it's a decision engine.
In my opinion, Bing can never replace Google because searching in Google is like a second nature for most of the web users. Not only that, Google is constantly innovating and changing as per the customer needs, coming up with lot of cools things like chrome, Google wave, Google desktop etc.It will be hard for Microsoft to replace Google Search.

[YNelson]

As I was reading this article, I decided to compare Bing vs. Google to determine if Microsoft Bing has a chance at capturing some of Google’s market share in terms of search engines.

I found a couple of differences between the two search engines that could give Bing competitive an edge over Google. The major standouts are Bing’s layout and Quick Previews/Hover feature. Bing’s lay is far more attractive and easy to navigate through. I like the Quick Previews/Hover feature, which allowed me to see what is on that site.

Although the features are appealing, I do not think it is enough for Microsoft to make a dent in Google’s market share. People have used Google for years as their primary search engine; I think it will be extremely difficult to get those users to switch over a few new bells and whistles. People tend to use what is comfortable. Microsoft has a better chance of capturing market share from other search engines like Ask or Lycos. Seeing, as these search engine are not quite as innovative as Goggle and slower in bring a new version to the market place.

It will be interesting to see how Microsoft will market the new features and the marketing campaign it will create to increase it market share.

[Kimberly Tolbert Wilson]

First of all, the phrase "Google it" is used as if Google was really as word in the dictionary (it may be by now), so the adoption of the that phrase which is now a second language and the possibility of people replacing it with "Bing it", don't see that happening too soon.

Now for the real comparison:

I think that it will take a while for Bing to catch on, even when I wanted to look at the comparisons, I could have simply type bing.com in the address bar, but my first instinct was to "Google" Bing.

Of course the main reason I would use search tools is because I want fast, comprehensive and relevant results, a Google strength. Although Bing more than holds it own, especially in the certain areas like videos, images travel, health, finding local businesses and shopping. The hover and play option is very nice in Bing, might I add.

It seem as though Bing although with its unique fancy interface is only focused on 4 main points in its inception whereas Google focuses more on finding the relevant searh of any given topic or query. Google seems to keep you engaged with other parts of the web where Bing keeps you locked in to itself.

Microsoft is one the right track however, will it be good enough to gain any real market share from Google, maybe, but it will take a while.

[Haidar AlMubarak]

I think even if Bing is not considered a head to head competitor with Google now it could be in the near future; at the end search engine is a service not a product and in services market it is easier to copy and enhance others not like products. Google has entered into products market and will make big shift especially in collaboration and cloud computing. Microsoft was concentrating in personal productivity and collaboration product inside the company, but recently they have entered the cloud computing market with hosted exchange service, office live, online LiveMeeting … etc.

The future competition will be more in online collaboration and cloud computing.

[Kyle Fishwick]

There are plenty of search engines out there and to separate any one from the dominant Google is difficult. Every new entry into this marketplace will need heavy advertising (as we see microsoft doing on the TV every day) to pull the basic user away from its home paged Google (or at least a favorite). I agree with YNelson in that Bing will have an easier time pulling market share from the smaller search engines then taking on Google for now. They are a late addition to the market and will have a tough time pulling people away from a very easy to use Google web page. Advertising dollars aside, I can see the promise of an 'intelligent' search engine that has predictable features to it but until it can read my mind as to what exactly I want without me typing it in, I am going to be stuck on Google till the end of days.

[Tarngrud Tripitak]

For right now no matter how hard Microsoft markets for Bing, users are not going to switch from Google to Bing unless there is a significant difference or something new in Bing. Microsoft Bing might bring some of the real-time search engines such as http://www.boilingpage.com and be first to bring it with the traditional search results. I think this is the way Microsoft can take on Google, not with incremental changes to the traditional search results.

I’ve been using Bing off and on over that past couple of weeks and used it side by side with Google to test and compare results. Google always gives me more quantities of results and hits than Bing, but sometimes Bing can give me more qualities of results than Google. However, I do not think that I would change google.com from my homepage for now.

[Tarngrud Tripitak]

For right now no matter how hard Microsoft markets for Bing, users are not going to switch from Google to Bing unless there is a significant difference or something new in Bing. Microsoft Bing might bring some of the real-time search engines such as http://www.boilingpage.com and be first to bring it with the traditional search results. I think this is the way Microsoft can take on Google, not with incremental changes to the traditional search results.

I’ve been using Bing off and on over that past couple of weeks and used it side by side with Google to test and compare results. Google always gives me more quantities of results and hits than Bing, but sometimes Bing can give me more qualities of results than Google. However, I do not think that I would change google.com from my homepage for now.

[Michael Lang]

I hate to say this, but the time and money that went in to design, build, and brand bing in the end will be pointless. As already pointed out, bing will only obtain a very small portion of the search market from Google. Even with the release of bing, Microsoft is still behind Google in my opinion especially in terms of innovation in search.

For example, Google just released Google Fast Flip (which I absolutely love) that allows you to search for a particular subject and flip through through the results in finds on the web the way you would a magazine. Bing and this point is not even close to that kind of innovation. Just look at how long it took Microsoft to even bring bing to the market.

[Veerapatr K.]

I have used Bing for several times. It works nicely like searching on Google. The Bing User Interface is quite friendly. The reason why I used Bing is when I went online shopping and searching a product. Bing offered me B ing cashback, so I could get additional discount from them. It would be interesting and a great marketing campaign that Microsoft Bing invested a big amount of money to increase its market share.