Bing Versus Google

As you may know Microsoft’s new search engine, Bing, had a great start. According to some news, it started to overtake Yahoo. Bing also grabbed market share from Google.

Is it possible? I don’t think so. People’s habit is hard to change and most of us is using Google as the default homepage. I think more creative ideas and some vision is needed to overtake Google.

 

I can see Bing competing with Yahoo, but I agree that I find it harder to see Bing overtaking Google.
Microsoft has a long way to go if they want to edge out Google.

 

I've changed my homepage from Google to Bing. The results are not quite as good but not bad. The Yahoo! main page has too much advertising. I like to support alternatives so that in the future there actually are some.

 

Same here, changed the homepage. Also I find the searches to be comparable if not better.

 

I would have actually tried it until I saw "Powered by Microsoft."

There is nothing fundementally wrong with Google's search engine, other than it's no longer the "Cool" search engine that only a few know about. Google used to be like Apple, they were new, cutting edge, against the grain, now everyone uses them, so by default they are no longer the "Cool" SE.

Google is, and will be for a long time, THE SE to use, if you want the best results. No amount of cute marketing (which bing has) will overtake that.

I use ixquick, only because they claim to be privacy based, dont do mining, dont record ip's, etc. But even tho it is my homepage, I still find myself using google more. ixquick gives me good simple returns, but if I am looking for something a little more specific, or outside the normal results, back to google I go.

Fact is, if 9/10 of your searches are cured by the first page of results, it really doesnt matter what SE you use. If you need consistant, more indepth searches, google will still be your place.

And the fact that google is so no frills, so basic, so bland, is hard to compete with. We have gotten used to that basic feel, changing that, is like teaching an old dog new tricks....

 

If you havent tried it, you obviously cant make a valid comparison. I think you will be surprised how good the searches turn out to be.

 

http://yauba.com/

 

I've switched to Bing, and like it. It's important to have alternatives!

 

For Firefox users they now offer Bing as an add-in search engine.

Listed as beta. Installed fine but have had no reason to try it yet.

 

You can use -add to search -addon for firefox and add whatever search you want.
Personally after comparing a few searches i don't see this as an alternative to google for me.

 

I can see myself using Bing as a secong alternative choice, their results are not that bad, but it sucked me that they tried to push down my throat "Silverlight", a Windows only technology made by Microsoft.

If you click on the picture arrow placed at the bottom of the right hand side of Bing page you get this message:

"want to see it again?
You can now go back and see the homepage images and hotspots from the past week with our new homepage archive.
You'll need to install Microsoft Silverlight™ to see the archive."

Of course, Unix users need not to apply for this feature, and probably MAC users too, which they could have easily implemented on a multiplatform language. Stuff like this puts me off using Bing for searching.

 

I wonder how private that really is?

 

I much prefer Google actually

 

Silverlight is not Windows-only. It may be x86-only though, due to binary codecs.

As for "alternatives" though... Microsoft already has a near-monopoly on operating systems; IMHO they don't need one and shouldn't have one on anything else.