Microsoft's New Search Engine Is Officially Announced, Previewed

The big news in the tech press is Microsoft unveiling Bing, it's upgrade to Live Search.  It should be live to the general public around June 3rd.  The name is short and designed to give people the opportunity to say things like, "Just Bing it," as they do with Google.  Microsoft has committed $100 million to advertise their new product.  Steve Ballmer said at the D7 conference that he had to gulp at the amount before he approved the budget, even at a $60 billion company.  He also damped down expectations that this was going to be an overnight game changer in the search market, committing the competition with Google in terms of years.  That's not a new statement from Ballmer or Microsoft.  It's been there during every other upgrade to Microsoft's search product these past several years.  The long term competition strategy, however, has not yielded the kind of results Microsoft is seeking given the billions invested in the technology.  

 

The features Bing brings to search, as noted in the press, represent the most ambitious change in how Microsoft engineers its  product.  The interface is aesthetically pleasing with a search box on top of a high quality exotic subject.  That's just the beginning.  Rather than simply displaying results, the engine categorizes them through types listed on the left side of the page.  ZDNET has a gallery of screen shots here that show how various types of searches are displayed.  The categories change with the type of search.  Restaurants, for example, will offer reviews, and will break them down by focus.  Cars, cameras, and other items break down against whether someone wants to buy one, fix one, by parts for one, find out more about one, all through links to grouped results.

 

Microsoft did this because of one survey that suggested a weakness in the Google search experience.  Searchers would look at an individual Google result and for more than 25% of the time would return back to the search page to wander around for what they wanted.  Hence Microsoft's approach on modeling the answers in anticipation of the likely intention behind the search.  It seems to be a more efficient type of search, but from the reports Bing seems to target the commercial and the broad types of query.  I can't imagine a set of defined categories for legal research.  I'd be curious to type in "contract of adhesion" and come up with a page that comes up with cases, commentary, statutes, jurisdictions, etc.  Microsoft is obviously going for the heart of the search market with Bing by optimizing it for the social experience.

 

The burning question is whether Microsoft will gain search market share with this move.  As I've noted, the company is expecting some initial movement in their numbers but see real gain as a slow grind.  It's not as if Google is treading water here.  They have the brand name and moreover, lots of people seem happy enough to keep using it.  Microsoft thinks searchers want something better.  Maybe they don't.  We'll find out soon enough when it goes live.  It's not as if Google couldn't add similar categorization to its results and more.  Curiously, searching Microsoft Bing in Google brings up news and other results, but also a sponsored ad link to the Bing site.  There is a "learn more" slide show there.  Microsoft, or its ad agency, is not above using the competition to get attention.

 

It's great that Bing will find great restaurants, but a professional searcher may want more. I look forward to testing it next week.  Microsoft's virtual press kit for Bing is here.  Thanks Google for finding it for me. [MG]