Microsoft's "Bing It On" search-off pits Bing against Google

[Rick]

Firmly believing in the power of Bing, Microsoft is daring skeptics to compare its own search results against those of its arch nemesis, Google. The company's "Bing it On" initiative provides a blind, side-by-side challenge between the rivals, selecting the winning search engine based on five user-performed searches. For each query, users are asked to select their favored results; however, they won't know which search engine produced them until the end of the test.

Microsoft has been investing heavily in Bing, carving itself out a chunk of the search and advertising market -- a highly profitable arena which, unfortunately for Microsoft, remains overwhelmingly Google's domain. In fall 2011, we noted that Bing's operation was losing Microsoft nearly a billion dollars per quarter and a whopping $5 billion between 2009 and 2011.

In the face of Google's empire, Microsoft has also made a number of bold moves to invigorate Bing: its deal with Yahoo, Facebook and Twitter integration, generous rewards and cashback programs and even utilizing its competitors search results to enhance its own.

I would like to add that my own search-off concluded with Google winning 4 out of 5 results. I made several varied queries (e.g. answers to an obscure Windows XP problem, a good coffee grinder, a recent news item and so forth). The one query where Google did not win had been marked as a "draw" due to identical results. 

Although Bing is clearly a bad match for my own tastes, some readers may find it better suits their own needs. Microsoft is claiming that nearly twice as many people prefer Bing's results to Google. Feel free to take the test and let us know what you discover.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/50061-microsofts-bing-it-on-search-off-pits-bing-against-google.html

 

[MilwaukeeMike]

Good luck Bing, honestly. I remember reading an article about the complexity of google's software, how it needs to know that a puppy is not much different from a dog and that hot is very similar to warm, but a hot dog is not a warm puppy.

Neither service is good at current events though... trying to find activities for the weekend in your city often yields results years old.

 

[Lurker101]

Well of course Google came out on top when it came to searching for something on Windows XP. Microsoft seems to be doing everything in its power to forget XP ever existed.

 

[amstech]

Bing's results are more controlled and pre-directed. When I am feeling dumb, which is most of the time... I use Bing. When I need a real, unfiltered search engine and I am feeling smart, which isn't often, I use Google.

 

[davimous]

Well I got three Bings and two draws. Maybe I should switch.

 

[danhodge]

Google won for me. Microsoft, please put your Internet Explorer, your Bing, and your Hotmail on the ground, and slowly walk away. Google wipes the floor with you.

 

[cliffordcooley]

I don't have any issues finding what I need using Bing.

 

[Timonius]

Searching something very specific and unique to me locally: Google Wins 3 to 1! Using the generic Bing suggestions: slightly in favour of Bing 2 to 0 (3 ties).

 

[Jillxz]

I got all Bing except for 1 draw. Bing is really just as good as Google. But Google is burned into the mind so , that one can't see Bing's results as the same or better than Google's.

 

[gooderguy]

Only got 1 Bing. It's crazy that MS blows so much moolah trying to overtake Google, I seen several Bing commercials on TV, never once seen Google (don't watch TV much though). But I find Microsoft sneaky, like since I've been using Windows 8, I've started Internet Explorer more in the last 2 months than in the last 10 years just because the IE icon is exactly where the Start button used to be in all previous versions of Windows and I keep hitting it by habit only. I still prefer Google, even just the plain simple fast loading page. Also I find Google is more apt to actually work together with other companies and developers as opposed to trying to take them over or run them out of business, remember Netscape?

 

[dennis777]

Lol got all google... bing return little result when searching whole web address

 

[Jibberish18]

I love Bing's style but it's search results just aren't as relevant as Google. Plus I sort of find it more intrusive nowadays. I get it Microsoft. You want me to use Bing. When I'm ready I will. Until then leave me alone. Oh and it was a draw for me.

 

[Jibberish18]

BTW probably the best style I've seen for a search site would have to go to Lycos. But A) They don't search porn (I'm assuming because it's based out of India now) and two....well yeah they're stopping my porn! No one stops my porn! ~_~

 

[RajeGera]

Good strategical move to make bing as atleast another option for searching.There are so many naives who even dont know..what bing is..If bing produces relevant results then word of mouth may bring more popularity.

 

[cliffordcooley]

Everyone is always comparing search engines.

I say forget comparing and setup a search engine that will show results from both. I'm tired of all the bickering, why not take advantage of both in one search. I would love to use two engines (ones I choose not pre-determined) at one time.

 

[likedamaster]

Strangely my results were in favor of Bing 4 to 1. I noticed I kept looking for google-style pages before I caught myself, and just started looking for more useful results, and Bing won out. Maybe I'll switch.

 

[isurajdon]

My results were google:bing = 5:0 and 4:1....you know the crazy thing about this, we really dont know which result is from which search engine!...its all up to bing to decide the result, shameless, and obviously no indexing for symbols,
try the test with:
1.!
2.@
3.#
4.$
5.%

 

[isurajdon]

Google vs bing and yahoo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9b6syhzubok