As you may already heard and saw Microsoft changed its confusing "Live!" search engine marketing towards the zen-like concept of "Bing". Starting 3rd June we search no more with Live!. We search with Bing. That's when we don't use Google, of course. Meaning rarely.
Aside from the rebranding things there are several features that the new search engine platform presents along with this I-lost-the-counting "rebirth".
What you'll get by reading this article is a feature by feature walkthrough of both platforms: Google, the leader in the market and Bing the always "new kid on the block".
First things first: Microsoft failed several times trying to overtake Google on the search engine market. Why? Google's market share is around 60% vs. Microsoft's modest 16%. That's why.
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First category of features you see compared here fall into so-called search services:
So, let's get started!
Both platforms have now local search. This feature is geotagging the searches a user performs. For example if you search for "dentist", you'll have the option to localize the search for a specific geographical area.
Bing's URL: www.bing.com/localGoogle's URL: http://www.google.com/search?q=dentist&hl=en&oi=local&ct=location-input-bottom
Often confused with local search, this feature is quite different. You don't search locations related to keywords, you search addresses on a map.
Google's URL: http://maps.google.com or http://local.google.comBing's URL: http://www.bing.com/maps
Ex-Virtual Earth technology is incorporated this way in Bing.
Both map engines support:
When you search for a health related term, a new "results page" format enters into action. You have subcategories like:
It seems Google doesn't have this kind of approach for Health vertical.
Basically you can search images as opposed to text on the web:
Accessible via this URLs:
Bing: http://www.bing.com/images Google: http://images.google.com
Inside Google's images SERP you can subfilter by size, context source (news, faces, clipart, line drawings, photo)
Inside Bing's image SERP you can filter by size, layout, color (color or black and white), style (photo, illustration), people (just faces, head and shoulders, etc)
Bing's URL: http://www.bing.com/newsGoogle's URL: http://news.google.com
Sorting options on Google's news search:
Sorting options on Bing's news search:
Filtering options on Bing:
Filtering options on Google:
Alerts on a subject matter are available on both platforms. You have the UI of both (Google – right, Bing – left).
Google's URL: http://www.google.com/prdhp?hl=en&tab=wf Bing's URL: http://www.bing.com/shopping
There's a program on Bing called cashback (ex. Live Cashback). Find out more here: http://www.bing.com/shopping/pages/howtouse.aspx?FORM=R5FD3
Sort options:
Filtering options:
Tax and shipping calculation is available on Google only.
Filtering and sorting based on popular features is available on bing only.
Google's URL: http://translate.google.com/ Bing's URL: http://www.microsofttranslator.com/
There are significantly more languages (and language pairs) for Google.
Swap source and destination language feature available on Google only.Autodetect language is available on both platforms.
Available on Bing only: http://www.bing.com/travel
You have a consolidated search on flight providers like: Hotwire, Expedia, AA.com, Priceline, BookingBuddy.
Price Predictor is a technology (acquired via Farecast for 115 milions US$) that provides predictions on prices.
You can also get a history of fares for some specific dates and cities.
In the search result page for travel, the left hand jQuery narrow panel is quite cool.
By moving the sliders you can narrow by: stops, times (leave and return), airlines, price range, airports, flight quality and duration.
Also there is a comparison tool between flight providers.
This is feature I personally waited for over 2 years now… although it's not available for all flights, unfortunately.
It seems Google does not have a feature like this one (I mean the whole travel search story …).
Some useful pages on Bing Travel:
Google URL: http://video.google.com Bing URL: http://www.bing.com/videos
A nice feature of Bing Video is that in the SERP (Search Engine Result Page) you can mouse over the video thumbnail and preview the video, with or without sound. You can also see the type of video in SERP on Bing News videos (Flash, avi, etc.)
Filtering options from Google: Duration, How old, source, playable on Google video, closed captioned, quality
Sorting on Google: relevance, date
Filtering options on Bing: length, screen size, resolution, source
Sorting options on Bing: best match, most recent
On Bing if you search on a celebrity you'll get a panel (on the left) with "related people". For example I got Michael Jackson for Madonna.
Google Trends for websites: http://trends.google.com Google Trands: http://www.google.com/trends Google Insights: http://www.google.com/insights/search/# Bing xRank: http://www.bing.com/xrank
For instance right now, according to Bing "beer bike" is an Top eXtreme mover:
Regarding the categories for trends you have on Bing: xRank today, xTreme movers, celebrities, musicians, politicians, bloggers.
On the trend graph you have reference points (with links to the "hot" content).
However Google Trend is much more advanced. Much more.
The simple fact you can compare two keyword's trands (on the same graph) and then drill down on a specific region made it much more advanced and versatile.
Bing xRank is not available for small countries like Romania. Unlike Google trends which is available at the level of county (e.g. Sibiu, Romania).
Google have a timeline feature inexistent on Bing, yet:
Second category of features fall into so called "Search features"
You'll find out in the next paragraphs about:
Bing has a turn off button and provides the most popular searches.
Google provides the past searches of yourself, too.
These autocompletion boxes are excellent basic tools for "keyword research" or "keyword browse"
On Bing you can access your "search history" via the left hand panel:
Here is how categories changes based on the term you search.
Here is a bunch of options you have on narrowing the search results on Google. However nothing on semantic side.
It seems that Powerset technology acquired by Bing is worth the money.
Google presents via "Universal Search" technology results from every source in one result page (news, video, images, maps, etc.)
Bing group content fomr the same category in clustered results:
Here's how Google's related searches looks like:
Here's how Bing's related searches looks like. Please note the bold of the non-mail-keyword.
(Yes, "Girls in Bucharest" . . .)
Google's wonder wheel is a killer feature for keyword research and related keyword browsing.
Access this feature by clicking on SERP's "Show option" (upper right corner) and then scroll down on the left panel.
Bing doesn't have yet something similar.
Bing has a preview AJAX div for text-based content and a video preview for videos:
Google does not have something like that.
Usefull resources:
Bing White-paper by Rick DeJamette, Bing Webmaster Center
http://Twitter.com/bing
http://Twitter.com/fareology
http://Twitter.com/shop
http://Twitter.com/travel
http://www.discoverbing.com/
http://www.decisionengine.com/Default.html
Bing is a new approach for MS in their quest to overtake Google. However Google will become more and more competitive and this move will force it to throw new features and new cool things, maybe sooner than later.
There you have it, a comparison among the two major search engines made in 4 hours of work.
Hope you enjoyed reading this document and please feel free to comment on it.
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