Challenge for Google

And by try I dont mean enter one search query and make up your mind, I mean give it a solid week or two. You might just find that Bing pleasantly surprises.

At least, it surprised me. Ive been playing with Bing for a couple of weeks now and Ive been looking forward to todays announcement. Im not sure if Bing is good enough to break my Google habit, but theres a lot under the hood to make me seriously consider switching from the all powerful, all knowing, Google.

Its best to think of Bing not as a search engine, but a decision engine"which is exactly how Microsoft is pitching it. While it may seem like a term you create, so as not to appear youre going head-to-head with Google, I think decision engine is a great way of describing Bing. Microsoft wanted to build a user interface that helped the estimated 42% of us that are constantly unsatisfied with our initial search results, and I think it has achieved that in Bing.

Today, search engines do a decent job of helping people navigate the Web and find information, but they dont do a very good job of enabling people to use the information they find, said Steve Ballmer, Microsoft CEO in a statement about the launch. When we set out to build Bing, we grounded ourselves in a deep understanding of how people really want to use the Web. Bing is an important first step forward in our long-term effort to deliver innovations in search that enable people to find information quickly and use the information theyve found to accomplish tasks and make smart decisions.

Now, before I show you some of the cool new features, lets acknowledge that Bing clearly draws from the advances made by search engines before it"Ask.com arguably made the first move in changing the first ten links approach to search results. That said, I think Bing brings its own personality to the table.

Head-to-Head

OK, so lets look at a few of the new features. For fun, Ill start off with a comparison with Google.

So, despite by Carolina Hurricanes losing to the Pittsburgh Penguins, Im still interested in the Stanley Cup finals. So, lets start there.

First Google:

Pretty good. We have news, relevant results, and some YouTube videos.

Now Bing:

Better than Google? Lets see, I have recent scores, relevant results, and youll see to the left (and bottom) of the screen that Bing has some neat refining options.

OK, so perhaps you could argue that Bing is just using a different UI, not necessarily better. OK, lets take a look and some other cool features in our search result, shall we?

While the snippets used by Google and Bing are helpful, what if I could get further information about a web page, without actually leaving my search results? Well, simply move your mouse over each search result and Bing will provide an expanded snippet"even drawing meta data, if available.

What if youre more of an audio-visual kind of person? Click the Videos tab and youll not only get video results, but you can mouse over each thumbnail and it plays right there and then!

How about static images? OK, so when you click on images you expect to see images of, well, the Stanley Cup. But what if I want to see images of players celebrating with the greatest prize in hockey? Well, Bing will help me find similar images:

Et voila, I can browse similar images until my heart is content.

Not a hockey fan? Here are a few other neat things that come standard with Bing.

Shopping search is built in"complete with user reviews and scoring.

What about travel? Tell Bing your departure airport and destination, and it will help you find the best price and predict if that price is on the rise or fall.

Summary

Theres a lot to like about Bing and really only one thing not to like"its owned by Microsoft. Not that it means it should be dismissed, but I know a lot of us will likely not touch anything created by Microsoft. That would be a real shame, because Bing is the best advance in search technology in the past few years. Sure, its far from perfect, but its equally far from its Live Search predecessor.

I plan on giving Bing a fair shot at replacing Google as my default search engine. Its got about a 20% chance of succeeding, but thats a big improvement over Live Searchs when hell freezes over chance.

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