|
Bing. This new search engine by Microsoft is the substitute for Window's Live, a failed attempt of a decent search engine. I don't even know anyone who liked Window's Live, at all. Bing, however, appears to have enough potential to topple over the search engine giant, Google. With Bing's similarity to Google, the blue lettering on search results, the bar on the top leading you to other places within the site, Bing shows the ability to be as good as Google, because it has similar qualities.
Background
With the similarities comes some differences, like Bing's new background every day, bright and colorful, with interesting tidbits and facts. On the background, little squares appear sometimes, and you can click them, leading you to more information about the picture's location, animal, etc. Below the background shows popular searches, random stories, and more. I really like the nice pictures, and the random tidbits Bing applies in their homepage, but it can also load slower than Google's blank page. It's not slow enough to really notice or care, and I like the colorful welcoming, so I ignore speed.
Web Searching
When you search the web, you are given many options, just before the point to where it can be classified as too many. I searched "iPhone" and on the left there is a box with iphone accessories, ringtones, and more. Under that are related searches, and beneath that is your search history, which can be cleared. The first results are where you can buy the iPhone, then a brief view of images, followed by results. To the right of the results, a little orange-ish bar appears, where you can rollover with your mouse, and a box containing a brief overview of the website pops up. I really favor the web searching over Google's because of the brief overview/description that pops up instead of loading the whole page and going back to the results over and over.
Image Searching
Again, I searched for an iPhone in the image search. Just like in the web search, there is a box to the left containing iPhone accessories, and more, along with the related searches below. Under the related searches is a bit of customization. You can customize what you see by sizes, color, illustrated or photographed, and layout. Before actually looking at the pictures, I recommending finding the display format you prefer, you can do this by selecting one of the four display formats on the top right. I personally prefer the far left one, you can view more images on your monitor at a time. With that said, when you rollover an image with your mouse, the image enlarges more, so you can get a clearer image without loading the website. Along with the enlargement, you can view similar images and feedback on that image if you click on the text. Parents, you can switch the safe search to strict or moderate. What I really like about Bing's image search, though, is right before you reach the bottom of the page, it adds on another however many images. You never reach the bottom of the page, until you run out of images relating to the search, however many it may be. You don't have to click "Next Page" every 20 results or whatever.
Video Searching
With Bing's video searching, you can sift through videos even easier. I search iPhone in the video search, again, and just as the other searches, the box on the left containing accessories, and more appears. Below that, you can narrow down your search with the ability limit your search by length, screen size, resolution, and source. You can also change the format of the videos with the top right display formats, similar to the image searching. I prefer the leftmost option. You can rollover a video, and it gives you brief clips so you can preview the video before enlarging it, which I love. I definitely prefer Bing's video search over Google's for the listed reasons, which gives it an edge over Google, for me.
These are just common uses for Bing, so I haven't gone into Bing fully, but with these attributes that Bing has, do you think Bing can overpower Google's empire? Personally, I think if Bing can persuade devout Googlers to switch over, Bing has the ability to do so, because Bing is better than Google in almost every way, I think. On the other hand, if the devout Googlers can't be persuaded, then Bing might just be slightly inferior to Google.
What are your thoughts and opinions about Bing?
|
Portal
