You May Hate Bing Search and Love Google, But Don’t Cut Off Your Nose to Spite Your Face
The general sentiment regarding anything Microsoft among SEOs is rather negative. But what about the rest of Internet users? Bing search is on the rise whether we like it or not. It may pay to at least be aware of it, since they did grab one tenth of the global search marketplace in a few months. Yeah, buying Yahoo sure helped and we already know Yahoo did quite a good job of collecting search data for market analytics (ever wonder how they know to keep flashing tooth whitening and personals ads at you if you’re single or wrinkle cream ads at your if you’re a female over 40?!) That fact alone is sure to give Bing a leg up.
However, the Bing search takes a completely different approach to search than Google – it’s a different search product for a different end user – or different end uses. Bing is marketing itself as, “The Faster Way to More Informed Decisions.” What you get, to me, is like getting a “sound bite” instead of a documentary because essentially what Bing search is doing is collecting information and digesting it down into a “flash card” of useful information complete with pictures and summarized “sound bite” information.
I found the results for things like local weather and local restaurants on Bing to be superior in terms of quickly getting the information I wanted in a visual way. Bing provides an intuitive left column navigation tab that pulls up the “flash card” style summary I was attempting to describe. There was a nice listing of various categories such as ratings, price, cuisine, and atmosphere. The following images show the difference between Bing search and Google search – or, just try it out for yourself. Search for “restaurants your city” in both Google and Bing and see the difference. Be sure to click the link in the left column on Bing or above the maps in Google to get the full results for the search.
Bign search for local restaurants
Google local restaurant search results
So if you want to know what to wear outside or which restaurant to go to, check out Bing search. If you want to do some in-depth Internet research, try Google or Dogpile. If you are an SEO and you have local clients – better not try to buck the trend and get them on Bing asap. Still, I recommend the following in terms of priorities: Google, Yahoo, MSN / Bing search. Just don’t ignore Bing. It’s easy to submit a site or advertise on Bing.
Here’s a good article on three ways Bing search is ahead of Google.
