Ninemsn reveals new search engine Bing
Ninemsn has unveiled its new search engine Bing – Microsoft’s long-anticipated bid to get back into a serious race with Google.
The site, which will replace Windows Live Search, launches in Australia next Wednesday. It features an uncluttered home page with a large, localised image – which will change every day – dominating the screen.
Bing was unveiled to the Australian press at a briefing in Sydney this morning by ninemsn CEO Joe Pollard and director of MSN Products Alex Parsons.
Much of the strategy for the new product appears to be to encourage users not to click away. A major difference to Google, and a potentially big issue for site owners that rely on search traffic is that Bing will attempt to give fuller answers on the page in a feature it is calling “instant answer”.
Google has too much of a stranglehold, i feel. And google feels like a trusted company now, something that microsoft has never really managed. Bill Gate’s public image has always been one of barely hidden disdain for the general populence…
Google will bleed traffic (as Altavista did) when someone provides better search but, though the opportunity is there, I doubt Microsoft will be the ones to nail it.
I don’t want to rush to judgement on the service yet, Isaac, as I saw it demo’ed but didn’t get to try it at first hand.
Some of the innovations are neat but not necessarily revolutionary – infinite scroll on images, extra info when you hovver over a response.
But despite their protestations, it feels a bit like they can’t decide whether they want Bing to be a portal or a launch pad.
So I wonder as a user if I’m going to feel like the results are quite good, but there’s a whole secret world out there that they aren’t showing me when they give me those hand on the page results. Just like in The Matrix.
“Some of the innovations are neat but not necessarily revolutionary – infinite scroll on images, extra info when you hovver over a response… preview moving thumbnails of videos”
in fact, these functionalities are in microsoft’s old/existing live.com search. but nobody noticed/cared. the travel features were already at http://farecast.live.com
this is mostly a re-brand, consolidation and user interface changes to existing microsoft products.
this isn’t a bad thing. it’s just bubbling existing functionality to everyone who uses bing.
awesome
“Meanwhile, Google stole some of the thunder by revealing Google Wave, an attempt to blend email with social media and instant messaging.”
– the understatement of the month?
My first impression of Bing is that there’s really nothing new here at all. Where are the cutting-edge algorithms that generate more effective search results?
It’s a shame that Microsoft didn’t try something truly innovative like Google Wave, and try to develop new markets with new products and ideas. Search was sewn up long ago by Google, who have made their service an essential utility. It’s a verb and a noun, need I say more.
Google’s success with AdWords was almost an accidental by-product of developing a truly useful and free service, and they continue to strike the perfect balance by not over commercializing, so it retains it’s impartiality and utility.