There’s a new Internet search engine in town, and it’s Microsoft’s search tool called, “Bing.” It’s easy to find on the Net, because it is simply bing.com. How does it stack up to the number one search engine, Google, which has about 64% of the search engine market? It is amazingly similar to Google.
Microsoft is struggling with only 8% of the market. Even thought Microsoft has been around a lot longer than Google, Google clearly figured out what consumers wanted, and Google continues to tweak and build to meet the cutting edge of consumer preferences. Microsoft has not done so well in this area, but their new search engine looks amazingly similar to Google’s.
Even the results are quite similar, although not precisely the same. Of course the results will not be exactly the same with different algorithms. But if you’re using Google already, you might wonder why you should shift to Bing. Other than a moment of “something new,” I can’t answer that.
“Nearly 98 percent of the traffic at Live.com is passive (coming from MSN, etc.) and Bing will be an attempt by Microsoft to establish its search offering as a destination Web site with high active traffic,” Collins Stewart analyst Sandeep Agarwal said in a research note on Monday. “In our view, though Microsoft’s search technologies are ready for prime time, making a call on the success of Bing now will be premature.”
Most Microsoft searches have been the result of using MSN with toolbars and other methods, while just 1 or 2 percent come from people actually typing Live.com into their browser’s address bar. The rumor is that Miscrosoft plans to spend $80 to $100 million dollars to advertise and promote Bing.
Well, that wouldn’t be the first time Microsoft tried to buy its way into a market. We’ll see how it goes, but this author predicts that Google will remain dominant and Google fans like me will continue to favor Google.
For an example of the same search in Google and in Bing, take a look at these results with the search phrase “sequim and port angeles real estate news” without the quotes:
Bing search results for sequim and port angeles real estate news
Google search results for sequim and port angeles real estate news
Or have a little fun yourself and type in phrases like, “find an honest realtor in sequim,” or “port angeles homes price per square foot.”
Last Updated on September 2, 2019 by Chuck Marunde
