Google once again topped the list for search engine share in May according to data from comScore. The company captured 65 percent of all core searches, up about 0.8 percent from April.
Yahoo came in second with 20.1 percent of searches and Microsoft was third with 8 percent, a drop of 0.3 and 0.2 percent respectively.
May's numbers did not include statistics for Microsoft's Bing search engine, which launched in June, but preliminary results from comScore said Bing helped Microsoft's share of search results jump to 12.1 percent for the week ended June 12.
Total number of searches were down last month, from 14.7 billion in April to 14.3 billion in May.
All the major companies took a slight dip. Google was still number one, but dropped about 2 percent, from about 9.5 billion in April to 9.3 billion in May. Yahoo dropped 4 percent to 2.8 billion searches, and Microsoft dropped 5 percent to 1.1 billion.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Google's Schmidt dings Bing
Google CEO Eric Schmidt, as one might expect, offered no public sense that Microsoft's new Bing search engine has him pacing the halls at night.
"It's not the first entry for Microsoft. They do this about once a year," Schmidt said Tuesday in an interview with Fox Business Network. "I don't think Bing's arrival has changed what we're doing. We are about search, we're about making things enormously successful, by virtue of innovation."
Bing has been well-received in its first trip around the Internet, but it obviously has an awfully long way to go before it makes a dent in Google's business. Still, with some in the search industry now wondering if Yahoo really intends to compete in search over the next few years, Bing may shape up as the only true alternative to Google.
Schmidt seemed to acknowledge those thoughts. "Google is about getting all the information and organizing it. Yahoo has a different strategy. We think ultimately Bing will evolve to a different strategy as well."
Earlier in the day, Google Chief Financial Officer Patrick Pachette said the company planned to hold "a review tomorrow on it with the executive committee," so it's not like Google is ignoring the possible threat, either.
Schmidt held forth on a wide range of topics during the interview, including:
• Yahoo: "As you know we got within an hour of doing a very deep partnership with Yahoo, but we were unable to do it because of the government and their concerns over various parts of the deal."
• Smartphones: "This is the year of mobile phones. What we like is every one of these has a powerful browser and every one is used to search."
• And Google's new plug-in for Outlook: "I grew up with Outlook as well, which is why we're doing these things. It's very important to bridge the new kind of customer, the young customer, with the existing customer that has grown up with the Microsoft infrastructure."
"It's not the first entry for Microsoft. They do this about once a year," Schmidt said Tuesday in an interview with Fox Business Network. "I don't think Bing's arrival has changed what we're doing. We are about search, we're about making things enormously successful, by virtue of innovation."
Bing has been well-received in its first trip around the Internet, but it obviously has an awfully long way to go before it makes a dent in Google's business. Still, with some in the search industry now wondering if Yahoo really intends to compete in search over the next few years, Bing may shape up as the only true alternative to Google.
Schmidt seemed to acknowledge those thoughts. "Google is about getting all the information and organizing it. Yahoo has a different strategy. We think ultimately Bing will evolve to a different strategy as well."
Earlier in the day, Google Chief Financial Officer Patrick Pachette said the company planned to hold "a review tomorrow on it with the executive committee," so it's not like Google is ignoring the possible threat, either.
Schmidt held forth on a wide range of topics during the interview, including:
• Yahoo: "As you know we got within an hour of doing a very deep partnership with Yahoo, but we were unable to do it because of the government and their concerns over various parts of the deal."
• Smartphones: "This is the year of mobile phones. What we like is every one of these has a powerful browser and every one is used to search."
• And Google's new plug-in for Outlook: "I grew up with Outlook as well, which is why we're doing these things. It's very important to bridge the new kind of customer, the young customer, with the existing customer that has grown up with the Microsoft infrastructure."
Bing Vs. Google: First Impressions
Microsoft has spent considerable time and effort to get attention to its new search engine, the hopeful Google-killer Bing.com. There was a live event on Hulu, almost a week long media frenzy, and a much-welcomed surge in market value for Microsoft that accompanied the launch of the search engine. While Microsoft would like everyone to believe that they're not trying to outshine Google with this effort, a quick visit to the actual search page will show you otherwise.
There's too much involved in comparing Google and Bing to fit in this article, but let's just consider first impressions. When you load up Google, you get your no-frills search bar, their logo that they like to play with, and a list of links up top that bring you to other search functions of Google or to Google's other services. Observe:
Now here's the Bing start page:
See the similarities? Now, with the understanding that most of these functions are pretty much necessary for any search engine these days, I will award Bing the win on just this small comparison based on style points. I like how the Bing start page looks better than the Google one. Of course, that says nothing about how useful the site is, and so I will give a quick comparison of a few of the other features for you.
Image Search:
Bing's image search is much the same as Google's, and finds relevant pictures. The results display mode looks the most like Google's when you click the display option to the right, "Show image details". As far as I could tell on first look, Bing and Google both display equally relevant results in images on broader topics or well-known topics, but with lesser known internet searches, there was a fair share of clutter on both sides, with Google slightly more useful.
Video Search:
Essentially, the video search comparison is the same as the image search comparison, although I am partial to Google's use of it's own video hosting for longer videos (longer than 20 minutes). I have to award points to Bing, though, for enabling a video/audio preview of the video with mouseover. I love that feature. But how come Bing referrences more YouTube videos than Google does? Google video gets videos from a variety of sources, not just their video golden child, YouTube.
Maps search:
To me, there is almost no comparison here. Google Maps was far more effective at determining my current location, and the location I wanted to search for. Add to that the fact that Bing asks you to install software to view in "3D" (which I equate to Google's "street view") and you've got a knock out. It seems like Microsoft has followed their usual protocol of imitation, with the addition of a marginally more impressive (although inconvenient) option, with this feature.
That's all I'll compare for now. Keep in mind that comparing an everyday tool like Google to a site that hopes to replace or cut into it is no easy task. It may take days, weeks, even months before I could say definitively which one I prefer overall. Have you tried Bing, yet? Let us know what your first impressions are in the comments below!
There's too much involved in comparing Google and Bing to fit in this article, but let's just consider first impressions. When you load up Google, you get your no-frills search bar, their logo that they like to play with, and a list of links up top that bring you to other search functions of Google or to Google's other services. Observe:
Now here's the Bing start page:
See the similarities? Now, with the understanding that most of these functions are pretty much necessary for any search engine these days, I will award Bing the win on just this small comparison based on style points. I like how the Bing start page looks better than the Google one. Of course, that says nothing about how useful the site is, and so I will give a quick comparison of a few of the other features for you.
Image Search:
Bing's image search is much the same as Google's, and finds relevant pictures. The results display mode looks the most like Google's when you click the display option to the right, "Show image details". As far as I could tell on first look, Bing and Google both display equally relevant results in images on broader topics or well-known topics, but with lesser known internet searches, there was a fair share of clutter on both sides, with Google slightly more useful.
Video Search:
Essentially, the video search comparison is the same as the image search comparison, although I am partial to Google's use of it's own video hosting for longer videos (longer than 20 minutes). I have to award points to Bing, though, for enabling a video/audio preview of the video with mouseover. I love that feature. But how come Bing referrences more YouTube videos than Google does? Google video gets videos from a variety of sources, not just their video golden child, YouTube.
Maps search:
To me, there is almost no comparison here. Google Maps was far more effective at determining my current location, and the location I wanted to search for. Add to that the fact that Bing asks you to install software to view in "3D" (which I equate to Google's "street view") and you've got a knock out. It seems like Microsoft has followed their usual protocol of imitation, with the addition of a marginally more impressive (although inconvenient) option, with this feature.
That's all I'll compare for now. Keep in mind that comparing an everyday tool like Google to a site that hopes to replace or cut into it is no easy task. It may take days, weeks, even months before I could say definitively which one I prefer overall. Have you tried Bing, yet? Let us know what your first impressions are in the comments below!
Search Smackdown: Bing Vs. Google
That was fast. Irish programmer and SEO specialist Paul Savage has made this very basic web service, which lists all results for search queries on Google and Bing side by side so you can compare which one produces the best results for the keywords you enter on one single page. We’ve played around with it a bit and found that the tool proves that the user experience for both search engines really is very different:
- searching for ‘Google’
Google will show news results about themselves first, and a link to their homepage later, which makes sense since people are probably already on there. The rest of the results consists of Google products and local versions of the search service. Noteworthy difference is the presence of a button that lets you drop down a widget displaying information about Google’s stock without the need to leave the page.
Bing, on the other hand, provides a list of possible extended search queries on the left sidebar, and a list of useful direct links to Google services below the first result. It also lists ’similar’ searches on the right sidebar (not visible in this screenshot) with alternative services - Bing being the first one they recommend. It also displays a box that you can use to jump to Google search, and it keeps track of your search history right on the page, unless you turn that feature off.
- searching for ‘TechCrunch’
Google only shows internal network links on the first SERP with the exception of our Twitter account, Netvibes profile and Wikipedia entry, while Bing mostly shows links to third-party services (Wikipedia, OnSugar, Flux, Blip.tv, AboutUs.org, Facebook, GitHub, Mahalo, etc.). From the viewpoint of TC the company, the latter situation is not ideal, and to top it off running the query on Bing apparently means potential visitors will see the names of competing blogs in the left sidebar. On the upside, you can open the Wikipedia article on TechCrunch on the same page, which makes for a seamless user experience if information about us was what you were looking for.
- searching for ‘Linux’
Using Google, you get much better results for this query, period. Google lists at least five very relevant links (Kernel.org, Debian.org, RedHat.com, LinuxJournal.com and LI.org) that you will not find in the first 15 search results on Bing. No nifty sidebars, nor any amount of spot-on similar results will help Microsoft here.
- searching for ‘Office Space quotes’
Here, Bing takes the top prize, although with this particular query the results are much more similar, which can be attributed to the fact that it is more detailed (three words instead of one like the other examples). Why do I say that? Because Bing is the only one of both that correctly lists the movie Office Space’s Wikipedia entry in the first few results, while Google doesn’t even list until the fifth page of results (both rank Wikiquote quite high). Also, this is where the extended search options in the left sidebar at Bing really shine: ‘Office Space sound clips’, ‘Office Space WAV files’, ‘Office Space Clips’, etc. - that’s the stuff you’d likely be looking for.
It is far too early and this is far too unscientific a research method to jump to any conclusions - we’d need a Jump to Conclusions mat for that - but using Savage’s tool gives you a nice clean overview of what most people who’ve tried both engines today: Google and Bing at the very least feel very different, and while you can argue about the quality of one engine versus the other back and forth as much as you want, it’s painfully clear both need improvement. Of course, if there continues to be no clear winner on the quality front, then Google has already won the battle before it starts, expensive ad campaigns be damned.
That said, please allow me to reiterate a point Michael made yesterday as well as in the past, that I most definitely agree with: Microsoft is damn right not to give up the search game yet like some are suggesting they should. Please stop calling for a monopoly in search, let these companies compete and fight hard for every user, and I’m sure we’ll see more innovation in this space soon enough.
- searching for ‘Google’
Google will show news results about themselves first, and a link to their homepage later, which makes sense since people are probably already on there. The rest of the results consists of Google products and local versions of the search service. Noteworthy difference is the presence of a button that lets you drop down a widget displaying information about Google’s stock without the need to leave the page.
Bing, on the other hand, provides a list of possible extended search queries on the left sidebar, and a list of useful direct links to Google services below the first result. It also lists ’similar’ searches on the right sidebar (not visible in this screenshot) with alternative services - Bing being the first one they recommend. It also displays a box that you can use to jump to Google search, and it keeps track of your search history right on the page, unless you turn that feature off.
- searching for ‘TechCrunch’
Google only shows internal network links on the first SERP with the exception of our Twitter account, Netvibes profile and Wikipedia entry, while Bing mostly shows links to third-party services (Wikipedia, OnSugar, Flux, Blip.tv, AboutUs.org, Facebook, GitHub, Mahalo, etc.). From the viewpoint of TC the company, the latter situation is not ideal, and to top it off running the query on Bing apparently means potential visitors will see the names of competing blogs in the left sidebar. On the upside, you can open the Wikipedia article on TechCrunch on the same page, which makes for a seamless user experience if information about us was what you were looking for.
- searching for ‘Linux’
Using Google, you get much better results for this query, period. Google lists at least five very relevant links (Kernel.org, Debian.org, RedHat.com, LinuxJournal.com and LI.org) that you will not find in the first 15 search results on Bing. No nifty sidebars, nor any amount of spot-on similar results will help Microsoft here.
- searching for ‘Office Space quotes’
Here, Bing takes the top prize, although with this particular query the results are much more similar, which can be attributed to the fact that it is more detailed (three words instead of one like the other examples). Why do I say that? Because Bing is the only one of both that correctly lists the movie Office Space’s Wikipedia entry in the first few results, while Google doesn’t even list until the fifth page of results (both rank Wikiquote quite high). Also, this is where the extended search options in the left sidebar at Bing really shine: ‘Office Space sound clips’, ‘Office Space WAV files’, ‘Office Space Clips’, etc. - that’s the stuff you’d likely be looking for.
It is far too early and this is far too unscientific a research method to jump to any conclusions - we’d need a Jump to Conclusions mat for that - but using Savage’s tool gives you a nice clean overview of what most people who’ve tried both engines today: Google and Bing at the very least feel very different, and while you can argue about the quality of one engine versus the other back and forth as much as you want, it’s painfully clear both need improvement. Of course, if there continues to be no clear winner on the quality front, then Google has already won the battle before it starts, expensive ad campaigns be damned.
That said, please allow me to reiterate a point Michael made yesterday as well as in the past, that I most definitely agree with: Microsoft is damn right not to give up the search game yet like some are suggesting they should. Please stop calling for a monopoly in search, let these companies compete and fight hard for every user, and I’m sure we’ll see more innovation in this space soon enough.
Bing vs. Google vs. Yahoo
http://www.pcworld.com/article/165749/bing_vs_google_vs_yahoo_feature_smackdown.html
Microsoft’s Bing Vs Google: Head To Head Search Results
Let’s just get it out of the way: no, Bing is not a “Google Killer.” It’s also safe to say that Microsoft doesn’t see it that way either. My understanding of what Microsoft believes it has in Bing is a much more competitive product than Live Search. I entirely agree.
Over the course of the next two or three weeks there will be countless articles and blog posts discussing Bing and whether or not it can dethrone Google. Microsoft has told me that the company sees Bing as a start (or restart) and that improvements will continue to roll out over time. One can be skeptical of that position or not. Regardless, Bing is a big advancement for Microsoft’s search efforts.
I’ve been using Bing (Kumo) off and on over that past couple of weeks. I’ve used it side by side with Google and by itself. In some cases I’ve been self-consciously testing and comparing results. At other times, I’ve simply used it to find information or navigate to desired sites.
Let me say that this post is not intended to be a detailed discussion of Bing’s “anatomy” and features. Danny and others will delve into those areas and may express different opinions and conclusions than I do here. As an aside, there are range of features that I like quite a bit; among them the “table of contents” that often appears in the upper left column (see graphic below) and the easily accessible search history, which will likely be further developed in interesting ways. (A Silverlight-enhanced version of search history adds more utility and even makes it social.)
Over the course of the next two or three weeks there will be countless articles and blog posts discussing Bing and whether or not it can dethrone Google. Microsoft has told me that the company sees Bing as a start (or restart) and that improvements will continue to roll out over time. One can be skeptical of that position or not. Regardless, Bing is a big advancement for Microsoft’s search efforts.
I’ve been using Bing (Kumo) off and on over that past couple of weeks. I’ve used it side by side with Google and by itself. In some cases I’ve been self-consciously testing and comparing results. At other times, I’ve simply used it to find information or navigate to desired sites.
Let me say that this post is not intended to be a detailed discussion of Bing’s “anatomy” and features. Danny and others will delve into those areas and may express different opinions and conclusions than I do here. As an aside, there are range of features that I like quite a bit; among them the “table of contents” that often appears in the upper left column (see graphic below) and the easily accessible search history, which will likely be further developed in interesting ways. (A Silverlight-enhanced version of search history adds more utility and even makes it social.)
Microsoft Gets Search Market-Share Boost With Bing
June 9 (Bloomberg) -- Microsoft Corp.’s effort to gain ground on Google Inc. with its new Bing search engine got a boost today from data showing an increase in its share of U.S. search results, according to ComScore Inc.
Microsoft’s share rose to 11.1 percent in the June 2-6 period, Bing’s first week in operation, from 9.1 percent a week prior, ComScore said on its Web site. Average daily penetration among searchers, a measure of how many people are being reached by the product, rose to 15.5 percent from 13.8 percent.
Bing debuted on May 28 and Microsoft released it the following week, bolstered by an extensive television and Internet advertising campaign. Bing represents an overhaul of the Redmond, Washington-based company’s search product after more than five years of investment resulted in share losses to industry leader Google.
The data “showed a substantial improvement in Microsoft’s position in the search market in the days following Bing’s introduction,” Reston, Virginia-based ComScore said.
Adam Sohn, a director in Microsoft’s Online Services Business, declined to comment on the share data. Google, in an e-mail, reiterated its statement that it “welcomes competition that helps deliver useful information to users.” Kim Rubey, a spokeswoman for Yahoo! Inc., operator of the No. 2 U.S. search engine, wasn’t immediately available to comment.
Microsoft, the world’s largest software maker, rose 3 cents to $22.08 at 4 p.m. New York time on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The shares have gained 14 percent this year. Google fell $3.15 to $435.62, and Yahoo rose 21 cents to $16.40.
Not Just Lookie Loos
Even though Bing has only been out for a week, it’s already performing better than past Microsoft efforts to improve and market its search engine, said Greg Sterling, principal at consulting and research firm Sterling Market Intelligence in San Francisco.
“People are trying it out and some number of people seem to be more than just lookie loos,” said Sterling, who is also a contributor to the Search Engine Land Web site. “In the case of a launch like this, you often get a spike on the first day and then it goes away, but there does seem to be some usage ongoing here.”
ComScore’s most recent monthly data shows Google with an 8- to-1 lead over Microsoft in U.S. search share. Microsoft focused on attracting users to Bing by enhancing how results are categorized and by exploiting specific niches like travel and shopping. It’s being marketed as a “decision engine,” that helps customers find the right information more quickly.
Keeping Trial Users
“The ultimate performance of Bing depends on the extent to which it generates more trial through its extensive launch campaign and whether it retains those trial users,” Mike Hurt, ComScore’s senior vice president, said in a statement. “It appears it is off to a good start.”
Microsoft’s search engine won’t catch Google any time soon, Sterling said.
Still, “Bing could catch on with a sizeable minority of users,” he said. “Yahoo is the engine that is vulnerable here. They seem to be coasting a little bit.” from bloomberg.com
Microsoft’s share rose to 11.1 percent in the June 2-6 period, Bing’s first week in operation, from 9.1 percent a week prior, ComScore said on its Web site. Average daily penetration among searchers, a measure of how many people are being reached by the product, rose to 15.5 percent from 13.8 percent.
Bing debuted on May 28 and Microsoft released it the following week, bolstered by an extensive television and Internet advertising campaign. Bing represents an overhaul of the Redmond, Washington-based company’s search product after more than five years of investment resulted in share losses to industry leader Google.
The data “showed a substantial improvement in Microsoft’s position in the search market in the days following Bing’s introduction,” Reston, Virginia-based ComScore said.
Adam Sohn, a director in Microsoft’s Online Services Business, declined to comment on the share data. Google, in an e-mail, reiterated its statement that it “welcomes competition that helps deliver useful information to users.” Kim Rubey, a spokeswoman for Yahoo! Inc., operator of the No. 2 U.S. search engine, wasn’t immediately available to comment.
Microsoft, the world’s largest software maker, rose 3 cents to $22.08 at 4 p.m. New York time on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The shares have gained 14 percent this year. Google fell $3.15 to $435.62, and Yahoo rose 21 cents to $16.40.
Not Just Lookie Loos
Even though Bing has only been out for a week, it’s already performing better than past Microsoft efforts to improve and market its search engine, said Greg Sterling, principal at consulting and research firm Sterling Market Intelligence in San Francisco.
“People are trying it out and some number of people seem to be more than just lookie loos,” said Sterling, who is also a contributor to the Search Engine Land Web site. “In the case of a launch like this, you often get a spike on the first day and then it goes away, but there does seem to be some usage ongoing here.”
ComScore’s most recent monthly data shows Google with an 8- to-1 lead over Microsoft in U.S. search share. Microsoft focused on attracting users to Bing by enhancing how results are categorized and by exploiting specific niches like travel and shopping. It’s being marketed as a “decision engine,” that helps customers find the right information more quickly.
Keeping Trial Users
“The ultimate performance of Bing depends on the extent to which it generates more trial through its extensive launch campaign and whether it retains those trial users,” Mike Hurt, ComScore’s senior vice president, said in a statement. “It appears it is off to a good start.”
Microsoft’s search engine won’t catch Google any time soon, Sterling said.
Still, “Bing could catch on with a sizeable minority of users,” he said. “Yahoo is the engine that is vulnerable here. They seem to be coasting a little bit.” from bloomberg.com
Microsoft Unveils the Bing Search Engine
At the All Things Digital conference, CEO Ballmer shows off the tool he hopes will help Microsoft win back search business from Google
Microsoft (MSFT) CEO Steve Ballmer used News Corp.'s (NWS) All Things Digital conference as a backdrop to introduce the public to his company's new search engine, Bing.
Demonstrated by Microsoft Senior Vice-President Yusuf Mehdi, Bing was unveiled with the inevitable gag video—a portentous-sounding narrator called search "the final frontier" and noted it was a "five, six, uh, multiyear mission"— prominently featuring James Gandolfini reprising his role as Tony Soprano to say "bing" before concluding with a cheery "back to you, Steve." Bing.com will go live on June 3. At least at the outset, Mehdi said, the service will primarily focus on certain topics—among them travel, local information, and shopping.
Microsoft chose Bing, Ballmer said, because it wanted a short one-syllable name that could "verb up"—in the way people say "Xeroxing" copies or "Googling" search results—and was inoffensive in several languages. (Fans of HBO's The Sopranos who recall the Ba-Da-Bing strip club that characters frequently called "the Bing" may disagree.)
Search results appear on Bing in a remarkably similar way to the generic display on Google (GOOG). As All Things Digital's Walt Mossberg said onstage, they're essentially "blue results on a white background," right down to the search ads appearing on the right side of the screen. But Bing also displays a tabbed tool bar, along the left side of results, that directs users to more topical results based on what they're searching for.
Loads of Information
Powered in part by key Microsoft acquisitions, such as semantic search provider Powerset and travel site Farecast, which predicts the likelihood of airfares rising or falling, Bing broadens the concept of what a search engine can provide, with a lot more information available to consumers on the search results page, without requiring clicking through to external sites.
A search for musical artists—demonstrated with country superstar Taylor Swift and idiosyncratic Jill Sobule (the apparent mascot of All Things Digital, owing to her multiple appearances at the conference)—lets users access, through the tabs on the left side, videos and images of the stars. Users can watch these videos directly on the search results page. They can also view a remarkable amount of travel data as well, with Farecast-provided predictions of a fare's direction and virtual real-time flight information being made available in the search results page.
Among other things, Mehdi said, Bing's product-related searches can provide users with a sense of how positive or negative comments regarding that product are across a wide variety of sites that host such user comments. A search for "San Diego" brought up tabs directing users to hotels and local attractions, among other topics.
Bing's features won loud applause several times from a tough, tech-savvy crowd that was not as generous to other product demonstrations at this conference. One Bing feature popular with the crowd was how the search engine, when prompted to search a major company's name, will pull up a customer-service number for that company and display it prominently in the search results. (And, yes, a search brought up a Microsoft customer-service number.)
Bing's Marketing Budget
Despite the applause, several conference attendees, including Mossberg and former IAC Interactive (IACI) executives in the crowd noted similarities between Bing and IAC's Ask.com when it underwent an extensive revamp earlier this decade. The new Ask.com won good reviews and then eked out share gains off a small base aided by a large ad campaign. But those gains "melted away," Mossberg said. Ballmer countered by saying Microsoft had earmarked a large marketing budget for Bing, one "big enough that I had to gulp when I approved it."
Earlier in the conference, Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz said Microsoft would have to offer "boatloads of money" if it wants to succeed in buying her company. Asked for his take on a possible partnership or deal with Yahoo (YHOO), following a long failed acquisition dance between the two companies, Ballmer gave a pro forma response: a search partnership could be interesting, an acquisition less so, I have nothing to announce, etc. He also revealed that Bartz, who spoke at the conference on May 27, left Ballmer a note in the conference green room. Essentially it said, according to Mossberg and Ballmer, that it would take much more than makeup to make Ballmer look presentable.
Microsoft (MSFT) CEO Steve Ballmer used News Corp.'s (NWS) All Things Digital conference as a backdrop to introduce the public to his company's new search engine, Bing.
Demonstrated by Microsoft Senior Vice-President Yusuf Mehdi, Bing was unveiled with the inevitable gag video—a portentous-sounding narrator called search "the final frontier" and noted it was a "five, six, uh, multiyear mission"— prominently featuring James Gandolfini reprising his role as Tony Soprano to say "bing" before concluding with a cheery "back to you, Steve." Bing.com will go live on June 3. At least at the outset, Mehdi said, the service will primarily focus on certain topics—among them travel, local information, and shopping.
Microsoft chose Bing, Ballmer said, because it wanted a short one-syllable name that could "verb up"—in the way people say "Xeroxing" copies or "Googling" search results—and was inoffensive in several languages. (Fans of HBO's The Sopranos who recall the Ba-Da-Bing strip club that characters frequently called "the Bing" may disagree.)
Search results appear on Bing in a remarkably similar way to the generic display on Google (GOOG). As All Things Digital's Walt Mossberg said onstage, they're essentially "blue results on a white background," right down to the search ads appearing on the right side of the screen. But Bing also displays a tabbed tool bar, along the left side of results, that directs users to more topical results based on what they're searching for.
Loads of Information
Powered in part by key Microsoft acquisitions, such as semantic search provider Powerset and travel site Farecast, which predicts the likelihood of airfares rising or falling, Bing broadens the concept of what a search engine can provide, with a lot more information available to consumers on the search results page, without requiring clicking through to external sites.
A search for musical artists—demonstrated with country superstar Taylor Swift and idiosyncratic Jill Sobule (the apparent mascot of All Things Digital, owing to her multiple appearances at the conference)—lets users access, through the tabs on the left side, videos and images of the stars. Users can watch these videos directly on the search results page. They can also view a remarkable amount of travel data as well, with Farecast-provided predictions of a fare's direction and virtual real-time flight information being made available in the search results page.
Among other things, Mehdi said, Bing's product-related searches can provide users with a sense of how positive or negative comments regarding that product are across a wide variety of sites that host such user comments. A search for "San Diego" brought up tabs directing users to hotels and local attractions, among other topics.
Bing's features won loud applause several times from a tough, tech-savvy crowd that was not as generous to other product demonstrations at this conference. One Bing feature popular with the crowd was how the search engine, when prompted to search a major company's name, will pull up a customer-service number for that company and display it prominently in the search results. (And, yes, a search brought up a Microsoft customer-service number.)
Bing's Marketing Budget
Despite the applause, several conference attendees, including Mossberg and former IAC Interactive (IACI) executives in the crowd noted similarities between Bing and IAC's Ask.com when it underwent an extensive revamp earlier this decade. The new Ask.com won good reviews and then eked out share gains off a small base aided by a large ad campaign. But those gains "melted away," Mossberg said. Ballmer countered by saying Microsoft had earmarked a large marketing budget for Bing, one "big enough that I had to gulp when I approved it."
Earlier in the conference, Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz said Microsoft would have to offer "boatloads of money" if it wants to succeed in buying her company. Asked for his take on a possible partnership or deal with Yahoo (YHOO), following a long failed acquisition dance between the two companies, Ballmer gave a pro forma response: a search partnership could be interesting, an acquisition less so, I have nothing to announce, etc. He also revealed that Bartz, who spoke at the conference on May 27, left Ballmer a note in the conference green room. Essentially it said, according to Mossberg and Ballmer, that it would take much more than makeup to make Ballmer look presentable.
Microsoft’s New Bing Search Engine Now Live In “Preview”
Tired of just hearing about Microsoft’s new Bing search engine? Now you can use it yourself. Spotted via Techmeme, Bing is live as a “preview” service. What’s the “preview” mean? That anyone can use it while Live Search, the service that Bing is to replace, continues on as the “main” Microsoft search engine. Then sometime on June 3, coinciding with Microsoft’s Dr. Qi Lu speaking at our SMX Advanced search marketing conference in Seattle, Bing will shift over and replace Live Search.
For more about Bing, see our recent stories:
Meet Bing, Microsoft’s New Search Engine
Microsoft’s Bing Vs Google: Head To Head Search Results
State Of Search: Google Will Stay Strong Despite Bing & Yahoo
Postscript: Scratch that. Now requests to Live Search redirect to Bing, so everyone’s getting it, it seems.
And boy, is everyone getting it. Loic Le Meur notes how that if you do a search on Bing for sex, hit the video results and switch off the safe search option, you get some pretty hard-core porn video playing on Bing itself. I mean, you did switch off safe search, but whoa. TechCrunch has some safe-for-work but still gives the point screenshots.
Expect the “preview” moniker to be dropped on June 3. Expect the hard core porn to get dropped sooner.
Postscript 2: Techmeme is beginning to collect stories of people talking about tips and tricks on using Bing. Some of these aren’t unique to Bing; other search engines offer them, as well. But one good part about the Bing launch is that as people explore it, they’ll rediscover things that search engines generally can do but which are often overlooked or not realized by even tech-savvy people. Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak is a case in point. After seeing the Bing demo, he found it “astounding.” Trust me, Google could do a product demo of its various services that would blow his mind. Problem is, they don’t.
Google’s never really had to market itself to consumers, to trot its stuff. The recently held “Searchology” event didn’t cover anywhere near the range of what Google offers. But if the praise for Bing keeps largely rolling in — if people keep discovering features that aren’t necessarily unique to Bing — Google may find it has to step up. And Yahoo, too, could do a demo of its services that would blow people’s minds. But then again, Yahoo’s not a search engine anymore, I hear.
While I’m thrilled at the discovery that’s going to open up, I’m slightly worried we’ll be back to the bad old days of around 1998, when search engines were largely measured by making big charts and tickmarking what they offered. Bing has travel search; so does Yahoo, Google doesn’t — no tick for Google. Google has book search, Yahoo & Bing don’t, they don’t get a tick. Add up all the ticks, and the service with the most isn’t the winner. That’s just a proxy for the harder task of looking very closely at each service, at its “sub-search” or “vertical search services,” not to mention its overall mouthfeel..searchengineland.com
For more about Bing, see our recent stories:
Meet Bing, Microsoft’s New Search Engine
Microsoft’s Bing Vs Google: Head To Head Search Results
State Of Search: Google Will Stay Strong Despite Bing & Yahoo
Postscript: Scratch that. Now requests to Live Search redirect to Bing, so everyone’s getting it, it seems.
And boy, is everyone getting it. Loic Le Meur notes how that if you do a search on Bing for sex, hit the video results and switch off the safe search option, you get some pretty hard-core porn video playing on Bing itself. I mean, you did switch off safe search, but whoa. TechCrunch has some safe-for-work but still gives the point screenshots.
Expect the “preview” moniker to be dropped on June 3. Expect the hard core porn to get dropped sooner.
Postscript 2: Techmeme is beginning to collect stories of people talking about tips and tricks on using Bing. Some of these aren’t unique to Bing; other search engines offer them, as well. But one good part about the Bing launch is that as people explore it, they’ll rediscover things that search engines generally can do but which are often overlooked or not realized by even tech-savvy people. Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak is a case in point. After seeing the Bing demo, he found it “astounding.” Trust me, Google could do a product demo of its various services that would blow his mind. Problem is, they don’t.
Google’s never really had to market itself to consumers, to trot its stuff. The recently held “Searchology” event didn’t cover anywhere near the range of what Google offers. But if the praise for Bing keeps largely rolling in — if people keep discovering features that aren’t necessarily unique to Bing — Google may find it has to step up. And Yahoo, too, could do a demo of its services that would blow people’s minds. But then again, Yahoo’s not a search engine anymore, I hear.
While I’m thrilled at the discovery that’s going to open up, I’m slightly worried we’ll be back to the bad old days of around 1998, when search engines were largely measured by making big charts and tickmarking what they offered. Bing has travel search; so does Yahoo, Google doesn’t — no tick for Google. Google has book search, Yahoo & Bing don’t, they don’t get a tick. Add up all the ticks, and the service with the most isn’t the winner. That’s just a proxy for the harder task of looking very closely at each service, at its “sub-search” or “vertical search services,” not to mention its overall mouthfeel..searchengineland.com
Microsoft unveils Bing search engine
New search engine will replace Live Search on June 3, and will offer search by groups and categories rather than straight links.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Microsoft Corp. on Thursday offered Internet users a first glimpse at Bing, its fresh attempt to gain ground in the online search market.
Bing is a search engine to replace its current Live Search product. Microsoft hopes it will provide users with a more streamlined, focused approach to search. Bing is set to launch on June 3.
Microsoft's search market share has been slipping for more than two years, and it has struggled to make its online advertising unit profitable. The company maintains just an 8.2% share of the market for core searches, according to comScore, compared to 64.2% for Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) and 20.4% for Yahoo (YHOO, Fortune 500).
0:00 /4:25Google's beefed-up search
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer demonstrated Bing Thursday at the All Things Digital conference in Carlsbad, Calif. The new search engine will help users refine their queries and initially offer four different categories of search: purchases, travel, health and local businesses.
"Today, search engines do a decent job of helping people navigate the Web and find information, but they don't do a very good job of enabling people to use the information they find," said Ballmer in a statement. "Bing [will] enable people to find information quickly and use the information they've found to accomplish tasks and make smart decisions."
In addition to offering search by category, Bing will offer more relevant search results, snapshots of search results' Web pages, color-coded search results and search tools on the left side of the page, according to Microsoft.
Bing is also set up to organize search results in relevant groups rather than as a series of links. For instance, a search for "fly to New York," may yield New York destinations like hotels, restaurants and museums as almost a guidebook page. The same search on Live.com generates straight individual links that users have to go through one by one.
Sandeep Aggarwal, senior Internet research analyst with Collins Stewart LLC, said Bing may have chance at becoming a "destination" Web site like Google, because the site's technology has been better tested.
"Live wasn't ready for prime time because the technology was too premature" and users weren't repeat customers, he said. "Now Microsoft thinks they're ready."
Microsoft has looked for ways to improve its search advertising revenue for years, including offering rival Yahoo a more than $47 billion takeover bid early last year.
Though that deal fell through, the companies have been in and out of discussions about a potential search tie-up since last May.
On Wednesday, Yahoo Chief Executive Carol Bartz told attendees at the All Things Digital conference that talks between the two companies have continued "a little bit," but no agreement has been reached.
Aggarwal said he expects a Microsoft-Yahoo search deal to be reached by the time the companies report their quarterly results in late July.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Microsoft Corp. on Thursday offered Internet users a first glimpse at Bing, its fresh attempt to gain ground in the online search market.
Bing is a search engine to replace its current Live Search product. Microsoft hopes it will provide users with a more streamlined, focused approach to search. Bing is set to launch on June 3.
Microsoft's search market share has been slipping for more than two years, and it has struggled to make its online advertising unit profitable. The company maintains just an 8.2% share of the market for core searches, according to comScore, compared to 64.2% for Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) and 20.4% for Yahoo (YHOO, Fortune 500).
0:00 /4:25Google's beefed-up search
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer demonstrated Bing Thursday at the All Things Digital conference in Carlsbad, Calif. The new search engine will help users refine their queries and initially offer four different categories of search: purchases, travel, health and local businesses.
"Today, search engines do a decent job of helping people navigate the Web and find information, but they don't do a very good job of enabling people to use the information they find," said Ballmer in a statement. "Bing [will] enable people to find information quickly and use the information they've found to accomplish tasks and make smart decisions."
In addition to offering search by category, Bing will offer more relevant search results, snapshots of search results' Web pages, color-coded search results and search tools on the left side of the page, according to Microsoft.
Bing is also set up to organize search results in relevant groups rather than as a series of links. For instance, a search for "fly to New York," may yield New York destinations like hotels, restaurants and museums as almost a guidebook page. The same search on Live.com generates straight individual links that users have to go through one by one.
Sandeep Aggarwal, senior Internet research analyst with Collins Stewart LLC, said Bing may have chance at becoming a "destination" Web site like Google, because the site's technology has been better tested.
"Live wasn't ready for prime time because the technology was too premature" and users weren't repeat customers, he said. "Now Microsoft thinks they're ready."
Microsoft has looked for ways to improve its search advertising revenue for years, including offering rival Yahoo a more than $47 billion takeover bid early last year.
Though that deal fell through, the companies have been in and out of discussions about a potential search tie-up since last May.
On Wednesday, Yahoo Chief Executive Carol Bartz told attendees at the All Things Digital conference that talks between the two companies have continued "a little bit," but no agreement has been reached.
Aggarwal said he expects a Microsoft-Yahoo search deal to be reached by the time the companies report their quarterly results in late July.
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