Decided come take a break from revision retirement to have a quick blog about Microsoft’s Bing: the rebrand of Live (previously part of windows live) and even before that MSN Search.
For those of you who don’t know I worked for the them back when it was MSN Adcenter back when it was MSN Search (2006), which is why this story caught my eye over all the rest that have been floating by on my screen these days.
In my opinion a rebrand is no good, simply due to the fact that everyone knows it is Microsoft, they are not offering anything better than Google. It has been said that:
The name is short and designed to give people the opportunity to say things like, "Just Bing it," as they do with Google.
So once again Microsoft are trying to be Google, whether they have learned anything since the previous rebrands remains to be seen. The only thing they have appeared to come up with to challenge Google is more targeted searches and more comparison – possibly quite good for general consumers.
At MSN we were briefed in the need to increase Microsoft share of the search engine market. The market which as everyone knew was being heavily dominated by Google and even yahoo!. (Currently Google 64% and Microsoft 8.2% and it was something similar back then). As stupid as it sounds but we were also encouraged to use Google rather the MSN Search, during our days at work as it was more efficient – so it seems that they couldn’t even convert their own employees. That said we did get into the habit of using both, and for a lot of the searches we were doing (products/site we were advertising) as they were pretty mainstream (e.g. halfords, ebay, various banks) there wasn’t much difference.
It has always been the more targeted searches that have been difficult – law for example, nightmare to search for, even when you say UK only you still get jurisdictional clashes. With Bing it remains to be seen just how targeted they can get (although the review at ars techica (link at bottom of page) gives us a pretty good idea.
In my eyes no matter how much rebranding they do, Google has such a dominant stance, Microsoft are only ever going to be taking baby steps – unless the come up with something radical – which in all their previous efforts they have failed to do so. (Of course Microsoft will maintain it’s not trying to take on the Google, which they blatantly are). And while Microsoft may have thought that they were getting one over with hitting the gap in Google’s market, create more effective comparison searches, Google of course is upping the challenge with Google Wave.
However, I still enjoy a basic fluff free search. Which honestly, the basic MSN was good for. :P And I’ve got to say I’ve only used Google since the 2006 change to Windows Live (which I hated), will Bing make me take a stand back on the other side?
See also:
- Classic Search Engine Rap Battle MSN v GOOGLE
- Full Hands on Review of Bing (Ars Technica)
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Interesting post! I too read about Bing with interest; I am a bit of a techie at heart, although I try an keep it quiet! The idea of a more targeted search certainly appeals, as occasionally I have found the high hit rate can really obfuscate the ability to find the information you want; using it efficiently becomes a skill in it's own right. However, the danger or a narrower search is missing that tangential page that ends up being useful.
ReplyDeleteJust Bing it? Please, Microsoft, try again.
I wonder if they will manage to rival the depth of Google's other features, which I think will continue to limie Microsoft dominance. The Google Scholar and Google Books however, which remains a big draw for me. I think also with the advent of ideas such as Goosync.com allowing the sync of a Google calendar to mobiles is going to ensure Google dominant for some time to come.
A step in the right direction, but a long way to go!
I don't think 'Bing' is ever going to catch up. What a stupid word!
ReplyDeleteI also think Bing is a terrible name. For what it's worth, I thought the codename MS were using for it during development (Kumo) was better. Still not brilliant but an improvement on Bing.
ReplyDeleteStill, Bing is so bad you might remember it. Whether that's enough to make you try it, even if you can't find what you're looking for immediately with Google, is another matter.
At least MS are trying to innovate with the search techniques rather than mirroring Google. They've finally sussed that they cannot ever beat Google at their own game so are trying to actually improve the whole search process. Whether their attempts meet with success is another matter entirely, though and if experience is anything to go by, Google won't have any worries from MS on the search front for the foreseeable future.
P.S. If 'Google' were not so damn good, I reckon people would also think it was a stupid name.
Thanks for the comments. very true Michael, Google in itself is a stupid name.
ReplyDeleteBeen experimenting today with Bing. Vowing to at least last one day trying it out before I write it off. So far not too bad, been job hunting, good thing actually found a few that I will apply for, whether this was the magic of "bing" or pure luck I don't know.
Silly thing is I said to m BF as he was leaving for work, "I'm trying out Bing, been googling things and it's not too bad" And he says "you mean binging" See. I'm searching on Bing and I still use googling as a verb (I've also realised how awful Binging is when said (although I suppose googling was considered bad one at time as well)).