Several alternate search engines have cropped up over the last couple of years, but every time I’ve been certain that they didn’t really pose a threat to Google. These alternatives might offer an interesting interface, but poor quality of results — like Cuil. Or they work so differently that they’re not really Google competitors — like Wolfram|Alpha.
When Microsoft first launched Bing, I was just about to dismiss it as another “also ran” search engine. But then the reviews came it saying that Bing is pretty good. Actually, really good. And some mainstream tech pundits (TechCrunch) wondered if Bing could be a real Google challenger.
So I’ve been trying it out over the last couple of days, and my verdict is that it’s fine. It’s a perfectly good search engine, and if there was no other competition, most people would be very happy with it. The only real problem is battling Google’s mindshare. It turns out that some research data backs this up.
The Catalyst Group tested Google and Bing with 12 users, including focus group and eye tracking studies. They found that people preferred Bing over Google in a lot of ways, but ultimately they preferred Google because it’s familiar. This is how The Catalyst Group and TechCrunch sum it up:
Catalyst CEO Nick Gould concludes that Microsoft “created something as good as Google and that is not good enough.” Overall, the test subjects “were not swayed.” No wonder Microsoft is spending up to $100 million on Bing marketing.
Be sure to check out the chart on TechCrunch to get a good idea of how people rated both search engines.
That’s why this video from CollegeHumor is so funny. In a way, this is how Bing really should advertise.
Have you tried Bing? And if so, would you switch?