Microsoft took the wraps off the Bing search engine, heir apparent to the unfortunately named Live Search, a few days early. Quick verdict: better, but far from a Google-killer.
Before I explain that, you might want to watch Microsoft’s promo video, which dubs Bing a “decision engine” that helps with things like shopping and travel plans. Take a look:
While Bing brings a few nifty amenities to the table (I do like the Related Searches and Search History in the sidebar), ultimately any search engine is only as good as its results. Live Search’s results always sucked, IMHO. Bing’s are better — though far from perfect.
For example, a search for “Business Hacks” yielded yours truly as the top result (well, the top after two ad links), but no related results on the side. A search for “iPhone” produced all kinds of goodies, including subcategories (Accessories, Software, etc.), images, and the like.
Bing’s coolest feature is video preview: Mouse over any video thumbnail and it immediately starts playing — no need to click through to the hosting site. Alas, it remains thumbnail-size — it’d be great if you could opt for a larger window.
So, yeah, there’s some good stuff here. But for now Google will remain my go-to search engine, because I know it’ll give me the most accurate results.
Give Bing a try for yourself, then let us know what you think. Better than Live Search? Better than Google, even? Or still just an also-ran?
