Update: If you are looking for instructions on how to get rid of Bing please read the article How To Uninstall Bing
Although I don’t see myself dropping Google as my default search engine, I was at least curious to see what Bing.com had to offer after all the hype that’s been going on. Microsoft has put a lot of money into marketing Bing.com so naturally one can assume that they also spent a lot of money making it, and hopefully that money was well spent. Since this is just a “first thoughts” post rather than get too fancy I’ll just offer a list of pros and cons based on my experience so far. As the week goes on and I’ve had more time to play with it and compare searches with Google I will continue to write about it.
Pros
Overall, I’m impressed with what Microsoft’s done with Bing. I expected it to be as cluttered as Yahoo or the old Live Search. Instead I found a slim, sleaker version with many new bells and whistles. Both navigating the site and searching are just as quick, if not quicker than Google and the results seem to be just as relevant. But it’s going to take a lot more than just cloning Google in order to get me and the rest of the world to switch over.
As I continued to play with the site I noticed many interesting features. The most obvious being the AJAX popups for each search result that gives you a preview of its content, very handy. The infinite scrolling on the image search page didn’t impress me much as Google did that long ago with Search Mash (R.I.P.) and to be honest I don’t get why they only did it for the images and not all the pages. Another fancy, but not necessarily useful, feature is when you’re doing a video search simply hovering over a thumbnail will start playing it, then when you move your mouse it will stop.
The most talked about feature I’ve seen so far is filters/suggestions bar on the left. So for example if you were to search for “mustang” you could end up filtering for parts, accessories, sales, videos, forums, etc. Could be handy if you don’t know what you’re looking for, or don’t know how to use a search bar. But most of us are keyword wizards now and know we can search for “mustang +parts” and get our results in one swoop instead of running a search, clicking a side bar and then running another search.
Cons
When it comes to the cons, the first thing I just can’t get past is the name. I hate it. I don’t want to “bing it” any more than I want to barf. Then there’s the fact that you’re immediately presented with some ugly stock photography as their background, I don’t need to waste my bandwidth on something so bland and irrelevant.
Despite it’s many new useful tools it doesn’t provide basic calculations, such as “pounds to kilograms” or “Celsius to Fahrenheit” which I’ve become reliant on Google for. It also seems to force you to use it’s spelling suggestions rather than specifying if you’d like to or not. So when I searched for “mustag” it just decided to give me “mustang.” In most cases this will probably satisfy people however I can think of countless times I’ve been searching for an error, or chunk of code, and I get some bizarre suggestion that I simply do NOT want to search for. So forcing me to use their suggestion is not something I am likely to embrace.
More than anything it lacks a lot of the “one stop shop” features that Google offers, such as mail, calendars, analytics, etc. Sure, they do have a link to Windows Live at the top, but they have a totally different look and feel and as a result they are a totally different experience than Bing. Not to mention navigating around any Windows Live product is a nightmare. I’ve been trying to figure out how to remove my Hotmail signature for years.
So for my overall impression of the site is exactly what I had expected, on a scale between it sucks and it’s awesome I will give it a meh. I’ll keep checking in on it, see how it progress, as it may become something special if they continue to try and improve on what we’ve accepted as being a search engine. More than anything, I just hope they manage to light a fire under Google’s ass so we can get some new features from them — as that’s where I’ll be continuing to do my searches.
A seasoned Senior Solutions Architect with 18 years of experience in technology design and implementation. Renowned for innovative solutions and strategic insights, he excels in driving complex projects to success. Outside work, he is a passionate fisherman and fish keeper, specializing in planted tanks.
I just did a search for mastag and it presents me with the option to search on the miss-spelling. They might have read your post 🙂
I guess bing did well with 10 Pounds to KG
I don’t what I clicked,but “bing” showed up & I can’t get rid of it…anyone got any suggestions on how to remove it?
Thanks for your excellent post. I guess it complements in many ways the one I wrote at http://www.lifemichael.com/en/?p=569.
Thank,
Life.
Please tell me how to remove “bing”. I don’t like it. Thanks.
“I just hope they manage to light a fire under Google’s ass so we can get some new features from them — as that’s where I’ll be continuing to do my searches.”
So you will continue to use a service that you are not satified with? If Bing gets the new features that you are cursing mad that Google doesnt have will you use Bing then?
I guess Google is like a incumbent politician people hate the guy in office but they keep voting him back in.
My location is Hood Oregon in Bing and wont change. I reset myself at my actual address and it still wont change. Anyone else having the same problem?
Did I say I was unsatisfied? Nope. Did I say I was cursing mad? Nope. Not sure which article you read. I just said some new features would be nice.
Bing is actually Windows Live Search. Just change your search provider to stop Bing from showing up.
i just tried the calculation, and it does work buddy
try:
1 pounds to kilograms
1 Celsius to Fahrenheit
I love the video search though. you can get videos from youtube and many other sites. also you can get rid of so much crap by using duration filters! i can’t believe this is not availabe on youtube itself. the vidoe preview is awsome, but you have to turn of the preview sound cuz it can get alittle annoying if you’re watching another video.
Bing has caused me nothing but trouble. I am no longer able work with the computer because of Bing.s interference. It need to be abolished! I try to upload images to my online store and they always go to Bing. This is totally unacceptable. It is interfering with my work and source of income. How do we fix this problem?
Hmmm… they must have just added that feature as it wasn’t working for me when I wrote that post. Perhaps I wasn’t the only one complaining about it 😉
when something not broke don’t fix it. Bing should be put out to pasture.
Please tell me how to remove “bingâ€. I don’t like it. Thanks.
some websites bing wont allow.
no good to me
Whats the differance between “Bing” poping up all the time, or some other spam window. Please someone tell me how to reach the “Bing department at Microsoft” to find out how to stop it. Yes I saw it, yes I tried it, and No I did’t care for it. Now just go away.
how to uninstall bing?
Bing.com!
It Sucks… I can’t think of other words for it, as these words describe it the best, just two small, yet very strong powerful words!
How to “UNINSTALL PLEASE???” Yet another miserably bottom dweller by the “Infamous Microsoft,” wow I can’t believe it (lol). Much Peace All and great luck sincerely getting this crap off, knowing Micro, they likely will leave tentacles all over the place on your OS even after uninstall (a-holes) (lol)… Much Peace, R.A.
Lots of new things on bing, but I prefer to not have it. How do I get rid of it?
Why do you have to shove your ideas on people? Make it available and let each person decide if they want it.
I just want to be left alone with what I have now.
Please tell me or show me how to get rid if Bing.
Thank you.
Get rid of it by removing the MSN toolbar. Go to “View” and unclick the MSN toolbar. Hope that helps!
PS: i hate it too. LIke having an annoying person at your front door on Sunday morning, ringing the bell while you lounge in bed reading the sunday paper, wanting to sell God to you.
Get a grip MSN.
How do you equate bing to selling God? what sort of issues did your parents instill in you with religion that it spews from every complaint you make? you want to be “left alone to make your own choices” yet you won’t let others choose God, i thought the only hypocrits in the world were in the church yet you fall lock-step in line with them. nice
I disabled the MSN toolbar and Bing came right back. (I’m using XP) It is infuriating. HOW do I get rid of it.
Hi, good day. Wonderful post. You have gained a new subscriber. Pleasee continue this great work and I look forward to more of your great blog posts.
I don’t want Bing to show up.
I DO NOT like to be IMPOSED a service, program, etc. Please don’t show up when I summon Mozilla Firefox (or other). Unsolicited Bing is not welcome. It is a pest.