Bing has cost Microsoft $5.5 billion since 2009

[Jos]

Despite making some gains in market share, Bing, Microsoft's two-year old search engine is losing nearly a $1 billion a quarter and shows no sign of letting up. This according…

Read the whole story

 

[SammyJames]

Who uses Bing?

 

[TomSEA]

I don't understand how you can "lose" 1 billion dollars per quarter hosting a search engine. I know you have to have the infrastructure in place as well as employee's managing the site. But 99% of the coding has been done. At this point it's basically just hardware and software maintenance.

I don't get it......

 

[slh28]

I don't understand how you can "lose" 1 billion dollars per quarter hosting a search engine. I know you have to have the infrastructure in place as well as employee's managing the site. But 99% of the coding has been done. At this point it's basically just hardware and software maintenance.

I don't get it......

Advertising and employee costs probably

 

[chandra70007]

Bing may me less popular than Google but once I was searching for a particular software application, then Google has given me an N number of results where only few matched my requirements. As I couldn't get what I wanted I just told myself why not try Bing. Well to my surprise it displayed all the companies which provide this software. As per my experience I think the search is precise in Bing where as in Google you get tons of results which I have to wade through.

 

[Guest]

So they want natural language questions? I don't. Why would I type

"What is the capital of Finland"
in Bing when I can type
"Finland capital"

or

"What is the episode of south park focused on Mr Garrison but not the one with Kathy lee in it"
when I can type
"South park Mr garrison -Kathy -lee"

Not the best examples, but the whole reason Google is top dog here is because of the concise nature of the searches.

 

[Guest]

They are loosing 1 billion per quarter because they are paying people to use it, so they can show people they are gaining market share. Never use it, never will.

 

[Tgard]

I use Bing and will keep using it at least as long as they are paying/rewarding me to use it and maybe beyond. It's not too bad. It did take a bit to get used to, but I have gotten used to it. Bing Images are nice, I have used their maps and directions, and my searches all seem to bring up sites relevant to what I searched for. Haven't used Google in forever. Used Yahoo before switching to Bing when they offered the reward deal.

 

[amstech]

People don't want pre-determined results.
Google is a superior search engine, we like open results.
If people want to learn how to use keywords better, that is up to them.

Bing is for people who aren't good at searching, just like Macs are good for people who aren't good with computers.

 

[Guest]

@amstech: You paint with a wide brush. We all can choose what things work best for us and it doesn't mean someone is smart, dumb, right, wrong, etc. just that choice A works for them while choice B works for someone else.

Enjoy using Google and I'll enjoy using Bing.

 

[Guest]

The reason is quite simple:

- "Dude, just google it."

- "Dude, just bing it."

:-S

 

[SammyJames]

sammyjames said:
Who uses Bing?

I rest my case.

 

[Guest]

There's not much difference between Bing and Google. I choose not to use Google as I a not a fan of Google persistent data collection. I mean they all collect data, but Google a little bit too much for my taste.

 

[cliffordcooley]

Maybe I would understand this better if I knew exactly how they could make money with a search engine. They speak of loss but not profits, are they making anything at all?

I can't imagine why expenses are so high to begin with. Seriously, where would that kind of money be going?

 

[gwailo247]

sammyjames said:

sammyjames said:
Who uses Bing?

I rest my case.

It's like watching Golum talk to Smeagol.

 

[Guest]

"just like Macs are good for people who aren't good with computers."

Funny, that's what they said about Windows users who moved from MS-DOS.

Judging by how well Apple is doing it seems more likely that Macs are good for people who like computers to do what they're supposed to.... WORK.

Bing is a great search engine. So is Google. Choice is good for this industry.

As for the billion dollar a quarter loss, I'd love to see how they came up with that figure.

 

[Guest]

@ TomSEA

Bing can gain market share by improving it's search results, which won't be a game changer since Google is improving it's search results at the same time.

Bing can try and attract advertisers with lucrative deals, but this again won't be sufficient alone, since Google has higher ROI and isn't sitting idle with it's advertising platform.

Bing can attempt to tie-in with it's PC, Phone, and Tablet offerings. Again, Google is right there with it's own tie-ins.



The only way Bing can win: stay relevant until one of it's sister properties gives it a competitive edge that Google's stronger market position and tie-ins can't out maneuver. Part of that involves R&D spending on things we haven't heard of yet, that might be tied to Bing's payroll but are being executed by another group within MS. And MS 'ate' the costs of launching the XBox platform before it started making money with XBox 360, so it very well might be that Bing is expected to be a cost-center that keeps MS relevant in Search while it develops the successor that will really take on Google (as a whole, not just search).

 

[Guest]

I miss Bing cashback!

 

[Guest]

1 million+ search results? who goes past the first page anyway?

 

[Archean]

chandra70007 said:
Bing may me less popular than Google but once I was searching for a particular software application, then Google has given me an N number of results where only few matched my requirements. As I couldn't get what I wanted I just told myself why not try Bing. Well to my surprise it displayed all the companies which provide this software. As per my experience I think the search is precise in Bing where as in Google you get tons of results which I have to wade through.

Fair point, and exactly the reason I ditched google, because sometime Google won't find what is needed and I wasn't interested in scrolling endless pages for what I am searching for, since I switched from Google I never needed to look beyond top 5 searches for what I am looking for. But in general, both engines turn out similar results, one may excel in one area and the other in some other. So it all comes down to habit nothing more.

 

[fpsgamerJR62]

I actually like using Bing because sometimes Google just can't locate the website or information that I'm looking for. Besides, having a choice of search engines is always a good thing for everyone using the internet.

 

[aj_the_kidd]

Considering my searches on google have been consistently very good, i see no reason to move to Bing

 

[Guest]

duckduckgo.com does not track you and gives me what I need most of the time, and if it fails I can always use google as a backup.