Google are a company that’s gone from strength to strength. Through a combination of putting respect and good service for users at the front of their mission, and clever marketing they dominated the market for search engines. Their standpoint today sees them not only in control of the largest portion of internet users, but also branching out into new areas, such as the Android OS for smartphones.
Microsoft are also a powerful company in the world of computing, and have previously been the leaders in various area of the internet, namely the early success of hotmail and msn messenger. But with the popularity of these services in decline, and Google so obviously dominating the search engine world, can Bing really take on the challenge and win over users?
Bing has been described as a ‘decision machine’ rather than as a search engine. Really, this is just semantics; whatever the applications of its thumbnails when highlighting search results, or suggested searches for uses, it’s really just a search engine with slightly different display features rather than a new animal altogether. But the branding is good – taking a leaf from Apple’s book by making things chic and easy to use, so Microsoft seem optimistic they can win over people on that front.
The thing is, the fact that these are the only new options – essentially an augmentation of what you get with a search bar already – shows how little there is to improve on with Google. And MSNbot isn’t as fast as Google, and misses sites completely that should be listed. Microsoft are coming from behind on this, and it makes it unavoidable that there system needs time to improve. There’s also been criticism of the unfiltered nature of websites being given thumbnails on the search bar of Bing, leading to the danger than even with parental filters children might be exposed to explicit material. In response Bing have created a specific explicit section, but that may lead to further criticism in the future.
Whether it can improve to match Google, and surpass them in the hearts of users, is another matter. But Microsoft have enough resources to throw at the endeavour to at least give them the chance to compete.
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