Microsoft's SE: Bing is now on the scene; Expect Competition

Now publicly available is Microsoft’s Bing search engine. Bing is now the replacement of Live Search. Can, or will Bing be able to stand in a competition with Google? For those of you that are not up-to-date with the search engines’ changes, you can access Bing at www.bing.com.

With Microsoft’s expected investment on marketing Bing ($80 million to $100 million), this will be a positive inducement to cause Google to add more innovation to their search and will also be an advantage to marketers when it comes to PPC (Pay Per Click); for the competition will eventually increase.

Is there any difference between Bing and Google?
There are great similarities between the two search engines (Bing and Google) and less variation. Here are some noticeable changes between the two:

• If, or when you hover over the search results at the right side of the screen, Bing shows a preview of the web page content, including additional links within the page.
• If Bing has understood your search goal, it will display fewer results. For example if you do a search for “linkedin”, Bing will only display one result, providing your with the destination URL to LinkedIn.
• Wikipedia searches can be displayed inline in the search results without leaving the Bing site by clicking the “Enhanced view” link.
• Bing features a different background image every day. The image contains special hidden hotspots that lead you to more information (soon advertising?) about the image.
• Despite the background image, Bing’s homepage loads very quickly in your web browser because the search box and logo load first. You can turn off the background image.
• Bing’s video search lets you watch videos without leaving the search engine.
• Bing offers specific health, shopping and travel search engines, as well as instant answers to travel searches. For instance, the search “Vegas hotels” displays a selection of hotels in Las Vegas, including hotel stars and prices.
• Bing’s search history lets you return to your most recent searches of the last two days. This feature can be turned off to protect your privacy.

To be Continued…