Microsoft has introduced Bing, a new search engine that replaces its predecessor Live Search. With Google taking up most of the search engine market, Microsoft hopes that added features and a new name will make Bing a prominent search tool. While most of Microsoft’s search services previously came from MSN users, the company hopes that Bing will draw interest from all over the web.
While most reviews give Google a slight edge in search result content, Bing has a few features that make it unique. Perhaps the most useful is a small passage of text that appears as users scroll over results. This saves a lot of time as there is no longer a need to visit an entire web page to see if it has relevant information regarding the search topic. Bing also offers a related searches tab and a more user-friendly video search results page.
The emergence of Bing could push for innovation throughout the search engine realm as competition increases. Some users will switch to Bing, but Google is expected to remain at the front and center of the search engine world, as most people will not want to tolerate learning a new format.
Microsoft’s launching of Bing has again brought up talk of a possible Microsoft/Yahoo! merger down the road. The two giants would hope to team up in an effort to pool resources and bait users away from Google.
Bing brings new features to the search engine field and it could steal a small percentage of Google users. However, Bing will have to prove itself over a long term basis.
