In case you haven’t heard Microsoft recently launched their new search engine called “Bing” earlier this week. This is their 3rd attempt at stealing some search market share from Google and honestly I think it’s going to fail…again.
I’m not saying that the new Bing search engine is a poor attempt by any means. I think it’s a well designed search engine with some great new features. The user interface is clean and the added features like the hidden flyout on the right side of each listing with site info are a nice addition.
Still, even with the added bells and whistles, it’s going to take A LOT more than this to steal any search engine market share. I don’t know why people are even talking about this affecting Google. Bing might be able to put a dent in Yahoo’s market share but Google is so far away from the pack that it’s going to take a lot more than this to change the landscape.
How is Bing’s attempt any different than Ask’s attempt a little over a year ago? Ask’s new search engine came out in a very similar style, with great features and a new look. They also advertised heavily on TV and other various marketing channels. 1 year later and millions of ad dollars spent, they had not made a dent in the overall picture.
I’m not blaming Microsoft for trying new things…they have nothing to lose. So far they’ve been confusing people by having multiple search engines at the same time. “MSN” and “Live” are both owned by Microsoft and were technically competing against each other for over a year. At least this time around Microsoft had the sense to condense both of these search engines into one…”Bing”, because searches on MSN and Live both redirect to Bing now.
I have to hand it to Microsoft. I like the name. At first I thought it was silly but the sillyness of it actually grows on you and I believe helps to make it more popular in the long run. After all, aren’t Google, Yahoo and Twitter kind of silly names? Maybe they’re on to something?
