The great Bing experiment has come to an end, having lasted just more than a week.
Google resoundingly won.
It wasn’t so much that Bing’s results were bad, per se, as much as I found myself constantly feeling sure that “hmm… Google would have better results.” I can’t say that Google’s results were objectively “better”, but they were more comforting, if that makes sense, and that made all the difference.
Plus, the strange image in the upper left corner of Bing always bothered me. And because I never saw the front page (using a direct search field in my browser instead), I never had any idea what it was.
But the clincher was Google’s new quick search box, recently released for Leopard. Developed by the same guy behind the legendary Quicksilver (and let me say, installing Quicksilver on a Mac makes as much of a difference as switching from Windows in the first place), it is the “better mouse trap” app launcher/integrated search.
I won’t lie, the more Google can do to lock me into their various services, the more loyal I am. That’s a redundant statement, but you know how us Google junkies are…
I was searching for “GM” (in Bing) and a sponsored ad came up at the top of the results. It said:
Official GM Site: www.GMreinvention.com
Change at GM is Under Way. Visit the Official Site to See How.
I assumed the ad was an outdated one referencing GM’s (well, Chevrolet’s) “An American Revolution” campaign, and laughed to myself — silly GM, don’t you mean bankruptcy proceedings at GM are underway?
Wondering if Bing was alone in displaying comically obsolete advertisements, I repeated the search in Google and was surprised when a stunningly frank sponsored result appeared:
GM Official News Site
Yes, We’ve Filed. See Official GM Site & Learn How We will Emerge!
www.GMreinvention.com
Score one for Google – real time sponsored ads! Take that, Twitter!
But, just to be fair, I gave Bing another shot at bringing up the new GM campaign – and it came through. Up came a wealth of Chapter 11-related advertisements. Turns out the “Change at GM” ad is part of the new campaign, not a vestiage of ads past as I had thought.
Here’s a full list of the sponsored ad taglines, culled from hours spent refreshing search results:
- Change at GM is Under Way. Visit the Official Site to See How.
- Yes, We’ve Filed. See Official GM Site & Learn How We will Emerge!
- You Can be Reassured that Our Commitment is Stronger than Ever.
- See Official Site to Learn How GM Plans to Emerge From Chapter 11.
- GM is Changing. One Thing Isn’t, Our Commitment to the Customer.
- Bankruptcy Doesn’t Mean the End. See Our Plan for the New Beginning.
So there you have it. Six clever taglines by my count, one of which uses an exclamation point to express its excitement at the company’s prospects. I guess GM’s marketing division doesn’t have anything more important to do.
(Minus one to Bing for not showing the stock chart.)
Reviews of Microsoft’s new search engine Bing keep rolling in – and are utterly disappointing. I’m talking about the reviews, not the engine. Invariably, the reviewing site searches for itself followed by a few key words the site finds relevant. The most “helpful” reviews show side by side screenshots of Google and Bing.
Forgive me for doubting if a handful of words and a screenshot can sum up the quality of an index covering billions of quieries, particularly when quality is such a subjective evaluation. By design, the sample searches are artificial, and it is impossible to ascertain whether the results are relevant. One user’s search for “technology” is not the same as another’s and such methods in no way account for the intent of the user.
But even more, I find it funny that people would listen to “reviews” of something like a search engine, which has literally zero cost of trying. Even worse are the video reviews – why would anyone watch someone else doing something which they could do just as well themselves with absolutely no training?
Which is why, starting today, I have made Bing my default search engine in Chrome. Over the next few days I will use it as my search page. If I like it, I’ll stay. If I miss Google, I’ll go back. Inherently, this method of assessing Bing is far more comprehensive than making a decision based on just one or two sample searches. Already, I’m impressed by some of the features – video autoplay, search result preview, even the option to open searches in a new window.
But after saying all that, I did a comparison search for “Bing review”. Google’s results discuss the new search engine exclusivly. Bing’s results don’t include the site at all.
Go figure.