A quick overview of Microsoft Bing

By on June 29th, 2009 In Social Media

A little over 10 years ago, Google was incorporated and launched the search engine technology we’re all familiar with.

Now Microsoft has launched Bing.  I asked their PR agency, Waggener Edstrom, to help me out with some questions I had.   I’ve seen the Bing ads about search overload, but wasn’t quite sure what made it different from or better than Google.

If I had to define it in an elevator speech, I’d say it was a new search engine tool from Microsoft that is designed to focus an information query more narrowly and precisely so that the user can find more relevant data faster.   At least, that’s the premise. 

What in clear terms is Bing?
Bing is a powerful new search service that helps people make faster, more informed decisions. Microsoft designed Bing to help people overcome search overload, which we define as “too many links — not enough real information,” to help them with key decisions like buying a product, planning a trip or researching a health condition. In these instances, people need a search tool that intelligently surfaces a range of information to help them make better choices. It was made fully available on June 3, 2009.

How does one use it?  Just type in ‘Bing’?
Bing is available online at http://www.bing.com. Simply type what you are looking for into the search box and Bing it! Additionally, customers can change their browser’s search toolbar so that it defaults to Bing if it doesn’t already. Internet Explorer users can get more information on changing their default by clicking here. Firefox users can access the Bing add-on here.

How is it different from other search engines?
We believe that Bing represents a dramatic improvement to search.  It is a decision engine – a tool built on great search to help people make more informed choices faster. For searches in key decision-oriented categories like travel, shopping, health and local, we’re confident that Bing delivers a superior customer experience.

How does Microsoft envision public relations people being able to use it on the job?  How will it help them do their job better or differently?
From a high level Bing offers PR professionals many benefits, including research tools that will save them time. Bing’s categorized search results allow PR and other professionals to quickly zero in on the right result, whether it be for a conference listing or finding someone’s LinkedIn page. Our Preview feature even allows customers to look inside any given page without clicking through, saving them the hassle of having to click back to the results page – something our research indicates happens 25% of the time. Our news search and alerts allow customers to search for the most relevant news items based on their query terms, and alerts deliver tailored news content directly to customer inboxes. Additionally, tools like xRank allow customers to track popular trends and search queries, with data provided up to the day.

What was the motivation to develop it?
With Bing we focused on listening to what customers felt was lacking in the current search experience and built a product that we feel addresses real unmet needs in search, especially when it comes to making decisions. The search model developed more than ten years ago has not kept pace with the explosion of rich information and services on the web today, and we feel Bing offers a new experience that cuts through the clutter and provides tools to help customers make faster, more informed decisions.

Have you tried Bing yet? It’s going to be hard to get me to switch from Google to Bing, but then, I was hesitant to try Twitter at first, too. 
If you like videos better, click here to view Microsoft’s promotional video.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 

Comments

Pat Elliott Says:
June 29th, 2009 at 9:45 am

Linda, I tested it in a side-by-side comparison with Google. On the plus side, Bing came up with some references Google missed. The preview feature was the best part – saves a lot of time. On the other hand,Bing seems wired to push more paid advertising into search results which got very annoying. Thier view of “decision support” seems to be shopping decisions support and driving revenues for Microsoft.

Marketing Sociologist Says:
June 29th, 2009 at 5:18 pm

For search engines, I prefer Dogpile. As Miley Cyrus says, best of both worlds.

For blogs I use blogsearch.google.com. I haven’t found another blog search engine but I would love to hear and learn about more besides Goggle.

Not that thrilled with Bing. Microsoft seems to have gone downhill since Bill left. Your next computer will be an iPhone, not a Microsoft driven vehicle.

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