The launch of Bing has, if anything, been interesting.
It was apparently going be launched last Thursday before Google pulled the rug out from Microsoft by unveiling Wave. Then, Bing was going to be launched on June 3. But, today, Bing is live.
First impressions are that Bing has some interesting features that could make it an interesting proposition. I don’t think anyone is going to blown away enough to declare Bing a Google-killer but Bing shows enough potential that you’ll probably give it the benefit of the doubt.
Bing shows particularly intriguing potential when it comes to product searches by providing a variety of options. For example, a search for digital cameras provides links to the top-10 cameras, types of cameras, accessaries, brands and images.
Another really nice feature is the ability to get a snapshot of a blog’s content through a new mini-window that pops up when hover over it. Here’s what you would see if you did a search on “Mark Evans”, and then hovered over the link for my blog.
More: Mike Arrington gives Bing the thumb’s up – “I like it. And I would consider using it as my search engine”, while FastCompany’s Kit Eaton was also impressed. It’s been a long time since a Microsoft product received this kind of reception.
4 Comments
I can't say I was too impressed by my initial search attempts with Bing.
Hi Mark,
Potential… Yes, but the cool stuff only seems to work fro the really big names so far. The "britney spears" example from the demo is impressive, but even your digital camera search is merely promising, the links on the left don't seem to add much. Again, the only search I could find where those links really add value is the britney spears search. Obviously, there was a reason they demo'd with that.
MS still has to work hard on making the features you mention useful. Which is fine, although I would expect a giant like MS trying to win the search war to put a lot of resouerces into this even before it goes live.
Admittedly, Bing seems an improvement over Live, but like Live I think it's geared towards a less experienced audience.
BTW, if anyone can tell me how to start a travel search that gives you all the impressive price comparisons and value over time graphs – please let me know.
I'm definitely less excited than after seeing the demo, but hey, it's not like there's no search engine I can use until Bing finds its stride…
I don't believe the launch was ever intended for Thursday, it was announced then with the date of June 3 for availability. Wave didn't change that, it just diverted the day's mindshare. Today it became available for an accelerated launch.
I did not find bing very "Cuil" at all. It misses the mark on a lot of searches.
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