Bada Bing! – Microsoft Bing Launches

So, its official – Bing is rolling out worldwide!

I have just left a demo of the product here in Australia and I am impressed. While the layout of organic and paid advertising seems to have remained in tact, this could be a great product and its certainly got some bells and whistles.

Here are a few stats:
- 42% of sessions require refinements
- only 1 in 4 queries are successful
- 66% of people use search more frequently to make decisions and are often disappointed

This is where the opportunities lie. Microsoft is attempting to give users more confidence that the link they click is the one that will best satisfy their query.

Microsoft has set the lofty goal of making search results better and aims to reduce total session time. So far I like what I see and while Bing will likely get its fair share of criticism I think it will come into its own in no time. I do believe that most searchers will find Bing a nice change of pace. The interface is slick and simple and the added features can be very useful and sometimes just plain fun.

Admittedly and somewhat expected, the coolest features are only available in the US at the moment. When some of these extra features roll-out in Australia the interface will be intrinsically Australian such as the opening homepage, local search, travel and shopping.

Nonetheless, I will go over them here.

There are some features you would come to expect such as auto-suggest and spelling corrections. The homepage will sometimes include hotspots (US version).

Instant Answers – This works for specific searches such as “anzac day” or “MTV Awards”. The data is provided by feeds from partnered information providers.

  

Best Match – Type in a very specific phrase and you get just one result – but the panel on the left is pretty good from a navigational perspective too. And, you can always click Other Results if you need more:

Search for flight numbers and get the arrival and departure time, as well as the location of the terminal – without leaving the results page. Search for musicians, actors, bands, movies, TV shows etc. to get a virtual snapshot of the different information that is available:

Some of the really interesting features are how they’ve worked FareCast into the engine – predicting airfare prices to help you decide when the flights will be the cheapest by forecasting the cost and letting you filter the results by changing your departure time or taking out airlines you don’t want to fly – real time. You never have to leave the page.

 

I was also impressed by the local search facility and the shopping interface (with Bing Cashbacks). Get reviews, ratings and customer feedback to help make your decisions.
Image results display on one page and they can be sorted by color, black & white or face shots only. Preview each video in the results or click through – it’s up to you.

I am watching Twitter now, not long after launch – mixed reviews, but like I said, give it time.

Tags: bing, Google, search engine, update