

Bing gaining momentum? - jcartano
http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/ticker/article.aspx?Feed=Bcom&Date=20090617&ID=10030603&Symbol=MSFT

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ujjwalg
I like a lot of what google does. Rather, I am addicted to a lot of google
services. But its right about time that there is some competition in search
space with google. Monopoly of anyone is not good. I am a Bing man now. :) I
love a lot of things about bing: interface for video/image search, cashback
and the ability to watch previews of video without leaving the page, thus,
saving a lot of time.

~~~
TallGuyShort
Yeah - I feel very much the same as you - although since Google 'needs'
competition - I would prefer it if it came from someone other than Microsoft.
I'm just relieved that Google seems to be very good at not abusing its power.
They push a lot of community projects and encourage others - it's nice.

Bing does have a nice video/image search. I've never been terribly impressed
by Google's algorithm for image search. I don't know how either algorithm
works, but I get much better results from Bing, and the interface is very
nice. I've always appreciate Google's very simple, informational interfaces,
but I can't help but love the user-friendliness of Bing. It seems like they
actually put a lot of thought into it.

~~~
quizbiz
Everyone wants to be the next search engine but no one seems to be able to do
it, even for a niche.

Microsoft has the 500M to market it, and the who knows how many billions to
build, and they already having paying advertisers. They know how to contact
companies with big ad budgets... Not many other tech firms have all that in
place, I don't think a startup could handle it. But then again, Google did it
as a start up.

~~~
encoderer
Search wasn't even a business when Google blossomed in the late 90s. Altavista
was a halo product for Digital. Yahoo used it to drive traffic to its services
that made money. Etc. Etc. Etc. Every search engine then had a "Try this
search on [Yahoo], [AltaVista], [Excite], [etc], [etc]" snippet at the bottom
of each results page.

GoTo changed everything with text ads and Google was the first company to turn
search into big business.

In other words, I agree with your larger point :)

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mrduncan
While I'm not necessarily arguing the accuracy of the story, it surely
wouldn't hurt to put in a disclaimer stating that MSN and Bing both owned by
the same company.

~~~
quizbiz
I don't care about the story as much as I am interested in trying to figure
out what Microsoft did differently because Live was launched in a very similar
way, minus the Hulu crap.

~~~
michael_dorfman
Is that really true? I don't recall the product rolled out at the Live launch
as having much of a distinguishing value proposition. Bing, on the other hand,
is notably different than Google in several respects, so first-time visitors
have a "take away" from the experience. If the purpose of the rollout ad blitz
is to "induce trial", it's up to the quality of the match between the product
and the product positioning to get people back for subsequent visits.

~~~
carbon8
Live rebranded a bunch of MSN services and the marketing centered on
personalization. Live Search was a rebranding of MSN search, with some new
enhancements like the image search and it was heavily promoted.

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anigbrowl
Well considering they're pretty much saturating the airwaves with commercials,
it'd be pretty shocking if they weren't.

~~~
bullseye
I believe ask.com also used the same strategy, but with markedly different
results.

~~~
anigbrowl
Considering that most people neither know nor care what an algorithm is, I
wasn't surprised. Ask made the classic mistake of talking more about
possessing superior technology than the supposed benefit to users.

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didip
Rather than reading "How awesome Bing is", I'd rather know how exactly Bing is
different than MSN or Live search.

Also, didn't Microsoft acquire Powerset (company that 1 of the github founder
worked for)? Any news about Microsoft integrating it to Bing? or Bing is a
completely separate technology?

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andrewljohnson
According to my server logs, Bing surged for one week and then fell off
mostly.

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xexers
Here is a less biased source - although same basic story:
<http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10266390-56.html>

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psranga
As a test, I've been using Bing as my default since their launch and I don't
miss Google yet. Bing is a very good product, imho.

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hamidp
I actually set Bing as my default search engine just to actually test it out
in day-to-day searches, because testing a search engine by searching for your
name or "test" is completely useless.

So far it delivers very good results, except for development topics, where
Google does much much better.

I wouldn't be surprised if Bing actually does evolve into a viable competitor
to Google.

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TweedHeads
No.

Says who, msn?

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weegee
yes, it's easier for people to say and spell the word Bing than it is to say
and spell Google. And it is good to give Microsoft some business what with the
economy and all. I just wonder what the family of Bing Crosby thinks about all
this. "Bing it and find out" is a new catchphrase circulating around.

~~~
weegee
and the users of HN think they are so smart and intellectual, that Bing being
a simpler word could in no way give it any success. yet this is in fact the
case. "Bing it and find out" is brilliant. Why would that comment be voted
down other than people who can't understand that? They can't understand so
they vote it down. It's called Marketing, folks. Marketing, plain and simple.
People are stupid, they gravitate to Simple things, Easy things. Why do you
think Microwave dinners are so popular? Nearly have their own entire aisle at
the very center of every supermarket in America, because they are Simple and
they are very profitable. People like simple things, and Bing is a very simple
word to say and write. Go ahead and vote this comment down as well, I could
care less. But I am right and everyone who votes it down knows it.

