I have ingested more statistics on Bing market share today than I have had biscuits with my morning tea and the consensus (once removing the extremities) is that Bing, especially in the US is becoming a force to be reckoned with.
O.k. so where did this blog come from…
I had a chat with a guy today (which removed my Bing filters that had previously been placed due to Bing overload) who said something along the lines of “the US having a great deal more trust in Bing than other major search engines”.
At first I snorted in amusement at what I assumed was a throw away comment, only to be silenced with a solid retort, backed up with a degree of passion, which made me sit back and look into this in more depth.
The more I sought a counter argument to this, the more I found myself being lured in by the statement and by Bing.
As someone familiar with search engine analysis and a Google/Firefox combination searcher (among other combinations) I did not expect to be saying this, however; there are some things I just really like about Bing:
1. I love the background images with the random pieces of information and links to equally randomly associated quotes (with associated search results when clicked). It can be liken to Google’s “I’m feeling lucky” but it just feels like more effort has been made to make this something special and I for one like it. People have made a lot about the value proposition piece for Bing but I am feeling the value!
2. I also like the fact that they have made the “Feedback” link stand out from the other links on their home page – this implies, (at least to me) that they want to hear what I have to say to the extent that they have made it easy for me to say something to them.
3. The extra text for each result option is another nice touch… Does this offer spammers chances to ruin this value add from Bing? (Probably) but this should not stop progress – and I for one see this as a genuine usability plus.
Having difficulty signing off this blog I thought that perhaps I would lean on ‘The Great Gatsby, Ch.1’ – perhaps this as an apt Bing/Google comparative:
“Whenever you feel like criticizing any one…just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had.”
- F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, Ch. 1
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