I have not been a supporter of Microsoft and its product and naturally stayed away from its BING search engine, touted to be (one day) better than GOOGLE. The very thought of something replacing Google is blasphemous to many since we google more than we eat and sleep.
In the last few days I went over BING in some detail and looked at some features. (This post deals with organization and layout). Here are some interesting (& different) features:
Organization in Bing is a bit different and depending on how you like your placement, you might prefer this to Google!
(SEE IMAGE Below)
The search results are divided into categories and these are placed visibly on the left panel of the page (and also within the results). This keeps the layout neat.Below this left panel of categories are the related searches that list other items that are similar to the searched term. This can be a useful tool.
The search results (but not all) can be previewed when you hover your mouse pointer at the right side of the search result(s). This quick view can be a useful time saving feature during your searches.
There is also an enhanced view (I think only) for Wikipedia items that you can view within the Bing page. This might be helpful in quickly getting information while still staying within the search engine and other categories that Bing displays.
Bing also lists your search history helping you track your searches (this can be modified for privacy reasons).
Bing might have a long way to go to beat Google considering Google is well established, but the new features might give users and Google itself something to think about! Just to have another strong search engine is what the end-users need!
Technologies: Google (Search Engine), Bing
Contact me:
Sujan Manandhar
Technology Integration Specialist,
Foreign Language Center
Ohio State University
I was also hesitant about the BING, but I've been preferring the the Microsoft maps site to Google's. I had been using http://maps.live.com (which is now http://www.bing.com/maps/ ) to check out houses that we've been looking at, and the bird's eye view is usually pretty good, and much better than Google's! Thanks for reviewing their main site- I was one of the last yahoo holdouts before finally switching over to Google, so I'm all about another search engine!
ReplyDeleteI agree that Bing bird's-eye-view is excellent. Nothing is all dandy, but Bing starts of strong.
ReplyDeleteExcellent summary with image explained. The image could be a bit larger. When's round 2??
ReplyDeleteYes, the sequel will come in about 2 weeks. I'll talk about videos, images, more layout - whatever else that's worthy.
ReplyDeleteAlso, if you click on the image, you can get a larger image that you can see bit more clearly.
Still awaiting the follow-up. Hope its not like the Transformer sequel.
ReplyDeleteNice post Sujan...I can't imagine google over taken by bing but when it brings some competition one gets better than other.. I am pretty sure google started working on something that can beat Bing's new flair!
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