By Elmer on June 24, 2009

Bing is the latest reincarnation of Microsoft’s search engine offering. After MSN Search and Live Search didn’t impress users and instead prompted them to switch to other search engines, an overhaul took place and the result is a pleasant surprise: Bing search engine indeed delivers desired results, interesting new features and finally some challenge to Google dominance. I wonder what took Microsoft’s search team so long to unleash this innovative search power?

Bing incidentally was launched just weeks after the long anticipated Wolfram Alpha was set live. I guess Microsoft prefers to be in stealthy mode and likes to talk more after its launched, even if there were already speculations swirling around about it before launch.

So what’s so special about this new search engine? Even before you type your search query, you’ll never fail to notice the presence of ever changing background of remarkable places; I even wrote something about Chocolate Hills of Bohol, Philippines. This is a contrast to Google and Yahoo’s immaculate search layouts. But don’t get deceived by the good looks. Let’s get into the details.

Bing was developed and aimed to address the following concerns:
a) Information overload - While it’s good to have a lot of information available, Bing believes it can be harnessed and presented further.
b) Search failure - Bing thinks that the browser’s [Back] button has been the most popular item to click after seeing search results.
c) Decision making - Search results have become more influential decision-making so displaying accurate results has become more critical.

Based on these concerns, Bing was built, and surrounded itself with the following features:

Categorization of results. Categories displayed on the left may vary according to the search term used. Instead of immersing into a pool of results, Bing displays categories on the left panel and enables user to pick the desired entry. This is helpful especially if search queries have vague meanings. For example if I search for my favorite sitcom “seinfeld” Bing tries to guess whether I mean episode videos, Jerry Seinfeld, George Costanza and the rest of the cast, episode guide or images. Bing then displays them in a category I can easily find.

Extended preview. Bing allows a visitor to preview additional content of a search result by simply clicking on a small dot that appears when you hover on the right side of each search result. This is a usability improvement as it is more convenient to do so than click on search result… and find out it’s not what you want to see.

Sublinks Bing can extract links within a page and displays it within search results (try “Wikipedia“). This is similar to Google’s Sitelinks feature.

Video Preview Going back to that Seinfeld search result where you can find videos on top. You can click on the video thumbnail and immediately start the video. As if clicking requires much more effort than just dragging.

Quick Functions Similar to what Google offers, Bing also has a rich arsenal of functions: calculation, sports team pages, flight information, answers to questions, and many more.

Local information Bing provides comprehensive information on local search such as business listings, restaurant reviews, local hotels, movies currently shown and more. However, I find local information in Hong Kong mostly empty as of the moment. For example, there is no bank found within Hong Kong as of my last check.

Interestingly, I bet Bing has a higher preference of a brand’s content over others. A search for dhl not only puts the official dhl.com website on top, Bing also weeds out all the rest. These other results are only accessible with an extra click if user thinks Bing’s best suggestion is wrong.

Bing was launched in June 3 and it’s not even a month since that date. Bing is hyped on overtaking Yahoo’s share but I think it’s too early to tell. Maybe people use Bing because they are curious about its performance rather than they have switched allegiance from other search engines. Still, the presence of Bing brings more choice for quality results and healthy competition from search engines.

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