Will Bing's big bang'¦ bash Google?

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Friday, 29 May 2009 08:03

Opinion and Analysis

Part of today’s demo showed Bing up against Google. Although we weren’t able to enter in any search term we wanted, the demos were running from the live Bing test platform (not yet available to the public, but coming in a week) and Google.

While there wasn’t a huge amount of time to carefully compare results, something that will undoubtedly be much investigated over the next few weeks, on the face of it, Bing seems to not only have results as good as Google’s, but a much better categorisation system.

It makes me wonder, how long will it be before Google delivers the best of Microsoft’s “innovations”? The facts are that Google has been going down the same path for some time, and could, with the snap of a finger or two and some quick action by its programmers, deliver a Bing-like interface before Bing itself even goes live.

I very much doubt Google will allow itself to be seen as moving so quickly in some panicked response to Microsoft, but over time it seems inevitable that Google will deliver the same kinds of improved results in short order.

There are those who will say Bing’s improvements are not that special and will soon be copied by all, but the devil is in the detail.

As noted, the “bird’s eye view” and “sneak peek” afforded journalists and the world today gives every indication of Microsoft really getting serious about search, more than they have ever done before.

Just as Ubuntu challenges Microsoft to do better with Windows, Bing will challenge Google to make its product even better at an even more breakneck pace.

After all, we’ve had all kinds of announcements from Google recently – Bing could have looked a lot more revolutionary had it been launched even late last year.

There’s also the Wolfram Alpha “computation knowledge engine” that threatens search as we know it, too.

The jury is still out on Bing, especially seeing as it hasn’t truly yet launched, but Microsoft has decided to make havoc with the idea of a “search engine”, too, by calling Bing a “decision engine”.

Go to Microsoft's “Decision Engine” site to see Microsoft’s video on how amazing Bing is supposed to be, but as with all things, the true decision maker will be you, no matter how much Microsoft, Google or anyone else spends on marketing.

It’s fantastic to see “search innovation” from Microsoft, because whether Microsoft is successful with Bing or not, consumers are the ultimate search winners.

So, will the world only have a brief fling with Bing, or will it become a deep new long-term relationship?

That’s all yet to be seen, but for now, in these last few days of pre-launch, Bing is a most curious and interesting thing. Here’s hoping it really is as cool as Microsoft insists, and isn’t Cuil in the slightest!