• Google Beats Bing; Rules the Ring

    Google Beats Bing; Rules the Ring

    Rahul Srinivas, Jun 02, 2009 1343 hrs IST

    Google vs Bing

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So, Bing, earlier known as the Kumo is finally here. Announced at the recently concluded D: All Things Digital conference, the Bing is Microsoft's first dedicated attempt to challenge Google's domination in the search arena. And prima facie, it seems to be a very good attempt indeed if we are to go by the worldwide reviews received soon after launch. Bing is all set to replace Windows Live Search and will be fully operational, starting Wednesday - although it's available in most countries now.

It's now time for us to take a first look at Bing. Does it really have what it takes? Will it ever replace that Google homepage of yours? Before we delve further into this, let's just try to shake off our prejudice (is that the right term?) most people have for anything that originates from Redmond. That, coupled with the unshakable faith in Google, makes for a nice combination, which usually ends up in most of us writing off any competition (to Google) even before actually trying them out. Remember Cuil? Anyone? So, has Bing managed to catch Google with its pants down? Or is it a product you can pass? Read on.

The Look

First off, what strikes you is the look of the Bing homepage. It's loaded with nice wallpapers that seem to change on a daily basis. On a closer look, you notice that you can find the story behind the wallpaper by hovering your mouse over various "locations" on the image. The interface is quite basic and intuitive - as good as Google.




The only complaint here is the image that some people might deem is an unnecessary addition. For others, this might be a welcome change from the white, too minimalist, simple Google page.

Searching

The most important function of any search engine is the way it displays search results and Bing does it pretty well. The good thing about Bing is the way it throws the information at you in a much uncluttered, unconfused manner. The keywords you feed in are further used to "suggest" you more results. There is a related searches bar on the sides, similar to Google. As for the results, it does come up with what you are actually looking for most of the times. However, this one actually needs some time for you to "settle" in. Maybe a month down the line, we can comment if Bing can really replace Google, or even Yahoo for that matter, which if you're not aware, is in second position in the search engine segment.


What we liked about the web results are the "snippets" of information that you see beside every search result link. To get an idea of what I am talking about, take a look at the image below. Once you search for a term and get a page with the search results, all you need to do is to hover your mouse over the thin line on the side of the list, and it will display what else is there on that page. Although I am not very fond of these mouse hover initiated things, this one does it in a very unobtrusive way. Nice!




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Discussion Board
(24) Comments
tushar kanti
,mumbai, on Jun 16, 2009 12:56 AM
well snippets is the next happening thing i suppose..the article is totaly in-coherent with the title.. though i did manage to spend some time on bing. not a bad alternative in 1st view. lets c how much can it attract people. when google has almost become synonymous to search.
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vegeta
,city17, on Jun 15, 2009 02:23 PM
Lol in this so called review throughout i felt like Bing was winning battles against google and the title is totally different :S There were no proper search battle done :| this review was really of substandard quality. Anyways i am starting to love Bing i dunno why :P
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Anonymous
,M, on Jun 02, 2009 04:35 PM
Why is the post titled "Google Beats Bing; Rules the Ring"??? It is totally misleading. There is nothing in the post which says "Google Beats Bing"...it doesnt say anything which says google is better or anything! Seems like author wanted to get more eye-balls :)
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Sabyasachi Jana
,Mumbai, on Jun 12, 2009 07:44 PM
agreed!
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Paul Ngoie
,London, on Jun 02, 2009 02:48 PM
Bing is just another hyped up SE, as a user the most important function is how relevant the results a search engine return. Relevancy is the key and that's how Google has managed to win the landscape. As far as displaying results I dont think that's that important. Bing is Live with a different skin and a bit of tweaks on how the results are displayed but I dont think they're coming closer to Google. I'm not a Google fun I'm just speaking based on observation and my experiment and experience with Search engines.
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Aaron P
,Philadelphia, PA, on Jun 02, 2009 05:58 PM
I totally agree with you. And it amuses me at how similar to Google Microsquish opted to go in displaying their results. It looks almost the same, even to how they display sponsored sites. It's not bad from what I'm seeing, and I like the picture and video results, but... eh, for general web searching? I'm sticking with google.
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Santhosh
,HYDERABAD, on Jun 12, 2009 03:47 PM
I agree that the most important function is to get the most relevant information. And bing is not bad in this regard. Just search for "google" or "yahoo" in bing. Bing knows what we want and returns only that. There is no point in returning a billion results for one search query.
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Anonymous
,0, on Jun 05, 2009 02:18 PM
The title is very misleading and almost the opposite of what the review is. Please modify it
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Sameer
,Bhilai, on Jun 03, 2009 10:09 AM
Well. BIng feels fresh initially. Remains to be seen if it matches the intelligence of Google.
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Pankaj Nikam
,New Delhi, on Jun 03, 2009 07:53 AM
I just love bing... its speed rocks... UI is great and not confusing...
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Google Boss
,google, on Jun 03, 2009 01:01 AM
Google is the best!
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punt
,CA, on Jun 02, 2009 10:23 PM
As MIcrosoft clearly points out in its ad campaign. Bing is just the beginning of a new era of web search. Competition in any segment is always good for the end users. The least that Bing can predicatably deliver at the moment is to drive Yahoo and Google to quickly wear the thinking cap and be more innovative in their search areas.
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novicefreak
,Hyderabad, on Jun 02, 2009 10:21 PM
Google is very relevant in "suggestion" and is the master when presenting the results when compared to Bing. Just tried keying basic words, one by one and compared the Master and Novice!: " calculate between two dates......." Google is and will be my choice! I will certainly stick to Google. Gooooooooooo Google! As its said Bing Its not Google and it can never be!
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prthwy
,Bangalore, on Jun 02, 2009 08:05 PM
Bing has a fresh look - The simple clean interface of Google has not out dated either -Thumbs up to MS. Google still retains its position as my homepage
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Kapil Poddar
,Mumbai, on Jun 02, 2009 07:26 PM
Google is king in search engine market.
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Nikhil
,delhi, on Jun 02, 2009 06:56 PM
All the features are not yet deployed yet in intl market yet. They are rolling in next few months. Mean while change your country in USA and have fun with bing
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chez
,India, on Jun 02, 2009 06:49 PM
Search o keyword "curry smell in the office" returns different results.
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Matt
,London, UK, on Jun 02, 2009 05:43 PM
Yeah.. I dont think Google needs to worry about Bing being much of a competition. Just tested it out, and its no where near as good as Google.
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What?
,Where?, on Jun 02, 2009 05:39 PM
NO PORN?!?!?!?!
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Ajay Biswal
,blore, on Jun 02, 2009 02:31 PM
i was just trying bing.but the no of results it returns is not so precise as Google does also the no of results is less as compared to Google
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BABU
,BANGALORE, on Jun 02, 2009 03:28 PM
I tried Bing and it did not give the correct results. Bing appearance is OK but technically it needs to improve.
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Ashfaq
,Karachi, on Jun 02, 2009 03:11 PM
BING is as they say, "But Its Not Google" :)
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Theo
,Brisbane, on Jun 02, 2009 03:01 PM
Have used Google for Years. Have tried Bing and loving it, especially videos, this could be a goer.
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Mr G
,Chennai, on Jun 02, 2009 02:32 PM
I agree with ur comments. BING surely has a very long way to go. Though it is ultimately difficult to replace google as my homepage, it has caught my attention a bit. I might try out bing when google doesn't respond to some searches. The image search in BING is better than Google or as good as it. It has a fresh look and come on guys...lets give MS a chance. It has been trying out for a long time to counter google.
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