Bing test : 15 chief specificities to know about Microsoft Bing

“Because the world doesn’t just need a search engine, it needs a decision engine”. Here is a Bing test to see if it keeps its promises ! 

Did that day happen, at last ? Is that a turning point in the history of humankind, while we only are in 13 after G. ? Did Microsoft fly down from the sky to spread the good word, and give mankind THE tool which will give us bliss, love, and wealth forever ?

 

Everyone has a different viewpoint : some are eager, they are celebrating the new Messiah's coming. Others frown upon it and stag bing's being an usurper. That's why Bing deserves a proper test !

 

 

1.  A giant video campaign :

Unless you are blind, death or you live in the Sussex, you must have heard about Bing's release ! Indeed, to promote his new toy, Microsoft has been liberal with means : an agressive video campaign which cost from 80 to 100 million dollars (that is to say 0.15% of Microsoft's annual global income.

You can watch all these streaming videos on this page.

The 6 first videos are far too serious, and have been criticized in this way. Microsoft acts as if he hadn't understood yet the power of viral videos, and persisted in communicating in institutional and formal ways... Whereas they could have used an uncommon tone to surprise.

 

Of course, since it's Microsoft advertising here, internet users have mocked the videos. For instance, on the second spot (Bing : Desicions = you) appears a women not really pretty, while you can read : « should I say hello to her ?». And here is the kind of funny commentaries going on :
-    Answer : You shouldn't say hello! D:
-    yeh..turn back and dont make eye contact

 

 

On the 4th spot (Bing : a new way to search, explore...), you will love the actors' beatific smiles. I don't know about you, but as for me that urges me to use Bing, because now I'm sure it can rock my world and change my life !

 

Is Bing washing whiter than white ?

Microsoft also made 2 interesting videos : a comparison between "before Bing" and "after Bing". I know, that makes you think about an advert for washing powder, but you must admit the idea it's based on is nice. It's just a shame the direction sucks ! Actually, at the beginning of the spot, a young girl is googling for Duran Duran lyrics, and commenting on the results : "I'm seeing nothing worthwile here"… Whereas the whole page is filled with exactly what she was looking for... Isn't Microsoft trying to trick us ?

The 5 following vidz, the most original ones, introduce the theme song of the campaign : the « search overload syndrom ». This theory says the other search engines are dangerous for mental health , since they compel you to make too many requests. Result : users act like the search engine they use, and talk continuously shallow unrelevant results. I think this is quite nightmarish, don't you too ?

2.    Why « Bing » ?

Obviously, Microsoft plans to make a verb out of « Bing », like « Google » did itself. The name is short, so it's easy to remember. Actually the domain name bing.com has been owned by Microsoft since 1996. As for Bing.org and bing.us, they don't belong to Microsoft. Concerning Bing.us, it has been created quite late, in september 2008 : did Microsoft make a strategical mistake not buying it ?
 


                                 Bing.us : lucky people who will get high trafic thanks to Microsoft !

 

 

3.    doubling everything

Bing does not handle properly redirections, even... Its own website's. Try to search "Microsoft" on Bing,  you will see the 2 first résults are :
www.microsoft.com/france  and www.microsoft.com/fr/fr
And the first URL redirects towards the second… Shame on Microsoft !  ;-)
Bing doubles the same video in the SERP, too.

4.    Bing is not the same for everyone

Major differences between french and US Bing : Americans have more features than we do. Indeed, the US version gives you access to webmaster resources, like google does !

To put it to the test, just click on the name of your country on the top-right, and choose US.
 

 

5.    Another benefit of the US version : organizing requests into categories

On the top left, many options help you to improve your request :  a map, the weather, attractions, places to visit and information for travelers (these last two categories are really alike by the way)

Similarly, "if you're looking for jaguar", Bing suggests second hand cars, as well as Jacksonville Jaguars football team jerseys. If you type in a music band's name, you will find their songs, lyrics, wallpapers, be suggested to buy concert tickets...
This feature seems only available on general requests ( « Dublin », « Playstation », « house », « Duran Duran »…), it's a shame because you get used to it pretty quickly !

 

6.  Geotargeting

If you live in the United States, the geotargeting system puts forward automatically shops in your area. What's more, Bing gives you informatyion about taxis, parkings, buses.

 

7.    Shopping !

Here, your request is made easier too. Just type in the name of the product you're looking for : « for instance "Panasonic LZ5" and Bing suggest all related products (thats's a « cross selling » technique).



Here you can therefore buy the camera, memory cards, and saddle bags…. The list is quite exhausted.

Moreover, Bing cashes you back part of the cost. We can then wonder if that's really an interesting offer : are the shop suggested the cheapest or those who made a deal with Bing ?


8.    Related searches

Bing US version displays a « related searches » field on the left of the screen. On Google, this field is "concealed" on the bottom left of the page, which has ergonomic consequencies : Google presupposes this field is useless unless we found nothing interesting on the SERP ! 

That is why I prefer Bing's way. What's more the latter gives a search history field too (handy !).
 

 

9.    E-books and RSS feeds

Bing has flaws we cannot ommit : it does not enable to search directly through e-books (like Google does), or agregate RSS feeds.

10.    xRank

Once more, Google may have influenced marketing words used by Microsoft : xRank makes think of the famous PageRank. But xRank, acquiered from Live Search, is totally different : it gets the most popular requests by day and makes a graphic out of it, il recense les requêtes les plus populaires par jour sur un graphique, en indiquant les  termes exacts de la recherche. A droite, on trouve  L’indicateur xTreme Movers, qui porte sur les requêtes dont la popularité varie le plus vite. 



xRank also organises celebrities by popularity search, within 4 categories : celebrities, musicians, politicians, and bloggers (the latter being an excellent idea I think). 
At the bottom, you can find a tag cloud showing the most popular searches.

 

11.    Do you like to travel ? 

You're going to be pleased. Bing suggest a tool which can predict raises and drops in plane ticket prices. And if you are to pick someone up at the airport, you can know whether the plane will be late or not, only by typing in its reference.

 

12.    Adult content

It is protected, more than it used to be. At first, porn images were too easy to find, which was Bing's major flaw. Explicit content is now put in a specific subdomain : explicit.bing.net. Thus, the image search « sex » does not give any results. You may then block that subdomain without blocking the whole search engine.

13.    Health

Concerning health, Microsoft claimed he would favor institutional websites (clinics, hospitals, and so on), which would mean community websites for sick people are neglected. It would be interesting to check out if that is true : don't hesitate to give us feedback !!

14.   Is Google not playing it fair ?

Testing Bing is fine, testing Google is better... Indeed, the latter only display 3 results for the "Bing" request, but the reverse is not true : Bing shows most of Google's services. Some think that Google despise their challenger, as for me I reckon Google dreads Bing's competing with them, and strives to put a stroke in their wheel !

15.    Results relevancy

On the research in french « hommes politiques français célèbres », here is what we get : (right click on the image and choose "display" to see it in details):



Google's results are the best ones, then Bing's, then Yahoo's (though difference is tiny between Bing and Yahoo actually).

Let's try with another request, in English : « french politician De Gaulle ».

That is astonishing : Google gives poor results, whereas Bing and Yahoo share the best ones.

 

To finish with, a last request, at random : "french city lourdes".

Once more, Google suggests the most relevant pages. As for Bing and Yahoo, they put forward old actuality pages (the pope visiting Lourdes, september 2008).

 

Ok, Bing is not a revolution, or a "Bing Bang" in Internet research. But it gives another way of searching, and thus boosts competition. Which is good news !

So let's be a little bit forbearing, and give Bing some time to get rid of its flaws. Don't you know that Google wasn't built in a day ?

 

>>>> To let you choose what search engine you like most, just blind-test them on this search engine comparator.

 

I hope you enjoyed this Bing test : feel free to give me feedback, whether you think Bing is the most lame / marvellous thing on earth, that will enable everyone to know more accurately about its efficiency !

 

Videos beneath __________________________________________________________________

• Trailer 1  
• Trailer 2
• Trailer 3  
• Trailer 4 : a more detailed presentation of Bing's features
• Life before Bing
• Life after Bing
• 5 videos on search overload syndrom
• 4 Olivia Munn videos