Bing - a more critical review

I love the premise of Bing.com . I love that it is forward-thinking concept and is attempting to herald in a new era of consumer-centric search. I love that it is attempting to be a fresh idea in an economy that is emphasizing a "hang on to your hats" mentality. While there are a lot of theoretical things to LOVE about Bing.com, it's time to get critical.

Before I do, though, I want to caveat my review with the fact that I had lofty hopes and expectations for a "decision" engine that is being launched with $80MM+ in media spending.

That said, I performed side-by-side searches on Google.com and Bing.com to really understand how searches look for each of them. Below is a comparison using an area of purported strength for Bing.com (travel) and a random search term to see how the search engines handle them.

Search #1: Las Vegas

Google.com returns sponsored results, a map and a tourist destination site. Bing.com returns sponsored results, websites and a handy left-hand navigation bar that helps refine the search into top categories. To categories include: Hotels, Weather, Attractions, Tourism, Images. A quick click on "Tourism" reveals a map with corresponding links to locations in Vegas. Click on "Weather" and the three-day forecast is listed at the top, followed by additional links.

Not bad for Bing.com .

But my expectation/hope had been that Bing.com would learn what consumers wanted when they searched for Las Vegas and return examples of flights, weather, and some hotel rates unprompted. Is Bing.com wildly better than Google in this arena? Not really, but it is better at any rate.

Point for Bing.com

Search #2: Toyota

Not necessarily an area of strength for Bing.com, but I liked what I saw here. Again, same left-hand navigation that allowed me to narrow in on specific categories / areas: Cars, Dealers, Financial, Used, etc. I like that the first listing after the search query included the customer service number - SO helpful! When I clicked into the "Dealer" category, the engine displayed a map with a ranked order of the closest dealers to my location. NICE!

Google returned the usual sponsored results and myriad websites. The more I search, the more I like the Bing methodology.

Overall

So yes, I like Bing - it's easy to use and it does a nice job helping me filter to a more qualified search result. Like a lot of consumers, I often search for the broad topic (ie., restaurants) and Bing helps me take the rest of the guess work out of what I am looking for by suggesting locations and cuisine, which I like. But is Bing different enough to set itself apart? From my standpoint, the difference in search quality is subtle and may be missed by the average consumer who is used to "Googling."

From a marketing stand point, anything that helps consumers move down the decision funnel is beneficial. It will be interesting to see how their left-hand navigation that allows for more specific categories will impact search term success. Something I've read in research is that consumers often find the sponsored search results to be as helpful (and sometimes, more helpful) than organic results. It seems like a search engine's efforts to narrow a consumer's focus will only benefit advertisers.