The New Bing and Some Cool Features
Yesterday we were able to test out Bing, the new search engine launched by Microsoft this week at SMX Advanced. Marketed as a “decision engine,” I was pleasantly surprised and impressed by its capabilities and its new approach to searching. Results get very detailed when searching for specific products in the Shopping section, and locations on their Maps, as well as new Video features. There are many more features, but those are my favorites so far.
Dr. Qi Li from Microsoft spoke this morning at the conference, and expressed that their main focus with Bing is to continue R&D and product innovation, and to always be two steps ahead of the competition (competition being Google and Yahoo). This is the first effort from a major search engine to try a different approach to searching. Other smaller search engines, such as Hakia, use similar search models, however, how many people use Hakia on a regular basis? People don’t say “Hakia It,” they say “Google it.”
So, now for an example. I did a search for "canon camera," and Bing showed me a plethora of information, including user and expert reviews, the popular features of the products, prices, exactly where you can buy it online (and where you can get cashback) and in brick and mortar stores (in the Maps section). I could also sort on the left hand column by category, brand, price and more to see other options. Here's an example of the Bing Shopping Comparison where they show a nice little box to help you easily compare small and large retailers such as Regal Camera and Amazon.
Another cool feature is the Video section. You don’t have to click on a video to go to YouTube or another video sharing site, all you have to do is mouse over the screenshot of the video, and it starts automatically. There are 20 videos per page that you can watch without clicking your mouse once. This makes it much faster to view videos and the video sizes are a good size, so video viewing is easy.
My suggestion is to try out Bing for yourself. As we know in the search world, everyone searches differently, and you just might find that Bing has the helpful tools that make your search easier.
About the Author: Ellen Stevens
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1 comment so far
Nick Skislak says:
The 'review' aspect of Bing is going to be the big differentiator that allows them to position themselves as a 'decision engine' that is better than Google. The only challenge, getting people to switch from the search engines that they have been using for years.