

Mary-Jo Foley explains why Microsoft won't dump Bing - msredmond
http://redmondmag.com/articles/2011/08/01/microsoft-backing-bing.aspx

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pkteison
I wish Bing was giving me some capability I didn't have before. I don't see
how it's going to be this awesomely critical fantastic compelling service if
it doesn't.

Example: Google wanted to make driving directions better. But they couldn't
get any of the companies with driving data to give them a license that let
them do what they wanted. So they drove vans all over the freaking world to
get the data to replace the existing systems. And now I can get directions to
somewhere on my phone, spoken to me, for free, with a photo of my destination
at the end of the trip so I can find the right spot, and much higher quality
searching and path selection than my previous stand-alone dedicated GPS
device. It's awesome, and makes me happy to be alive today every time I use
it.

Google wanted to make voice search better. So they ran a voice version of
Google to gather data for a while, and now my phone's keyboard has a
microphone button and it feels like magic.

Microsoft wants to... make search better? So they give me a search engine that
works like Google's, but with a slightly worse algorithm?

I just don't see what new things Bing lets me do that I couldn't do before. Is
there anything it can do that will make me jealous of somebody with a windows
phone? That's how they can convince me to buy one - make me want something
awesome in my life. I haven't seen it yet. Until they find something, it just
seems like a money pit.

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kevin_morrill
Foley hits on a key point of integration.

The other key factor for Microsoft is the company's history and view of
perseverance. Windows took 3 versions to get right. Word was an underdog to
Word Perfect for years. Excel lagged behind Lotus. Outlook/Exchange struggled
to catch up to Lotus Notes for ages. Windows Server and SQL Server were
laughed at when the company tried to enter the enterprise market. It took a
whole generation of consoles for xbox to start beating Playstation. All of
them are major cash cows today, and execs know it's because they outlasted the
competition and finally found a way to win. Ignoring naysayers is a badge of
honor for these guys.

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daeken
Completely agreed with your point and all your examples. However, isn't that
how most everyone succeeds? Google, Amazon, AirBnB, Apple (recovery), etc.
It's almost always an uphill battle against naysayers.

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jdp23
"Microsoft sees Bing as more than a standalone Web search engine -- it's a key
selling point for the Windows Phone 7 platform."

kenjackson made a similar point in our conversation a few days ago at
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2794209>

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Aloisius
I use Bing as my primary search engine. At some point, I decided that today's
Microsoft somehow seemed like a nicer company than Google. And I was hardcore
anti-Microsoft for over a decade.

Also, the pretty pictures every morning are nice and the search engine
performs well.

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eli
For those who may not know her, Mary-Jo Foley's reports about Microsoft are
typically _very_ well sourced.

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programminggeek
Too bad I don't think users see bing as the value add that MSFT does.

Look at it this way, iPhone doesn't have massive search integration that is
world beating like Android does and users don't seem to mind.

Search is a useful function, but it is not the function you buy a device for.

Phones are primarily communication devices, so making a killer communication
device seems like a good idea. Sometimes you want to track down content - via
search in a browser, ok fine bing is useful there.

I just don't think anyone buying a phone even thinks about search integration
unless they are a nerd. Search is a feature on a phone, not a de facto reason
to buy.

