To bing or not to bing?
It’s no secret that Microsoft considers Google to be their #1 competitor these days. Google seems to have their hands in everything, and they are encroaching further and further into the products that are Microsoft’s major cash cows – The Windows Operating System and the Office platform.
But it all starts with search. Google has what is by far and away the dominate search engine in the online universe (a roughly 70% market share), and that means that it has tremendous influence over what information is distributed to the world – including their own products that compete with Microsoft.
Microsoft recently released their latest version of the search engine – Bing – in an attempt to start chipping away at Google’s dominance, which raised a few questions in my mind:
- Does the world need another search engine?
- What does Google’s search engine not do well?
- What are the differentiators that Microsoft is using to attract Google users away from Google and to Bing?
To answer my questions, I started poking around Bing to see what they came up with. If you are interested in doing the same, I think the best way to get an understanding of how they are trying to be different than Google is to take a look at the Bing Tour they have on their site.
So what’s the verdict?
Well, the ultimate test is where browsers go to search the internet every day when the need arises. For me, that’s still Google. Bing has some cool technology built into it, but it’s just not enough for me to change up my normal routine. It will be interesting to see if they are able to come up with the “killer app” to get me to break my old habits.
My understanding is that Microsoft was able to pull a couple of % points of market share away from Google though – at least temporarily – so maybe they are on to something.
To bing or not to bing…that is the question.
I say go see for yourself.
Mike Cooch
CEO
Everon Technology Services, LLC
Tags: Bing, google, microsoft, Seach engines