Bada Bing! Bada New Search Engine Boom?

Posted Tuesday 2nd June 2009 by Kerry in SEM News.

Microsoft has re-launched its search engine, aiming to make searching online simpler whilst aiming to overtake Yahoo. Re-named and branded Bing.com, the search engine has gone live days earlier than Microsoft said it would. So will people now be ‘binging’ as opposed to ‘googling’?

This probably won’t happen, seeing that Google currently has more than 64 percent of the search market within the US, followed by Yahoo at 20 percent and Microsoft at a small 8.2 percent.

However, Bing does offer to make searches more relevant by understanding the meaning of searches and grouping more related information to the original query. For example, searches for products will bring up product reviews, accessories, and online shops.

If a user searches for flight information, Bing will bring schedules and flight times from websites as well as linking the user to other relevant information such as hotels in that area and weather. Microsoft is aiming to reduce the amount of clicking a user has to do to find related information.

Paul Stoddart, of Microsoft UK Search lead said ‘Forty percent of search queries go unanswered; there is something missing here and a big consumer need.’
He then went on to say that Microsoft were trying to build more of an ‘emotional connection’ between users and the search engine, as well a brand loyalty. Bing offers users a far friendlier, softer feel than previous Microsoft searches and Google, with the background image changing daily.

‘Google haven’t been able to innovate a lot of the user interface because they have to display their ads and that’s how they make their revenue. We can try things a bit differently.’ Said Mr. Stoddart.

He then went on to deny that Microsoft’s goal of overtaking Yahoo lacked ambition and went on to say,
‘Second place would be a great place. And once we’re in second place we can go for first place, Microsoft has a great tradition of coming from behind.’

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