Kevin Fair
Bing & Google: Like Apples and Apples
June 14, 2009 at 12:22 pm | Technology | Comments |
In case you haven’t heard the search landscape is changing. Microsoft has introduced their new search engine Bing in an effort to claw away at Google’s dominance. So is it going to work? It just might.
It’s All About The Results
You might be surprised to find that the quality of the search results on Bing are about as good as Google’s. In fact, in most of the testing I’ve done, they are nearly identical.
Here are a couple of places where you can search them simultaneously: Bing and Google and Blind Search (which shows you results from Bing, Google and Yahoo without telling you which is which).
Result: Google no longer is head and shoulders above the rest.
I Love Me a Good Image Search
I’m a big fan of the google image search (particularly for finding crazy images to use on my Facebook profile). When I first tried the Bing image search my sense was that it was better than Google. It offers the ability to filter your search results by size, type and more. Okay so Bing is better. Wait, not so fast. I checked Google image search again and these filtering features are offered there as well (including a filter based on colour). I declare a draw.
Result: Both image search tools are great.
Show Me The Preview
There is a good add-on for Firefox that I use called Google Preview which gives a small screenshot of each linked page. Seems like this would be a good feature to build in to the default search functionality. Bing gives a nice preview of the content on each returned page, but the link for this is in a strange place. If you hover over any result, you will see a graphic to its right that looks a little like a little scrollbar. Hover over that graphic, and you will see a text preview of the contents of that page. This is a good feature but very poorly executed, in my opinion.
Result: Bing does previewing well (if you can find it). Not sure why Google hasn’t integrated this.
What’s The Answer?
One of the lesser-known features of Google is that you can type in calculations such as arithmetic or unit conversions and you will get the answer at the top of the page, above the usual list of results. The testing that I’ve done has produced nearly identical results on both Bing and Google although the Bing results might be just a little less precise in certain cases.
Result: No great advantage on either side.
Help Me – I Canont Spell
We’ve all done searches for something and spelled our query incorrectly. Google is very good at understanding what you meant to search for and offers you a link to perform the correct search. Bing seems less able to understand when you spelled something wrong, but when it does think you meant something else it actually shows you those results instead. This might save you a click, but it also might be wrong about what you meant to search for.
Result: Google seems better in this area.
Show Me The Money
If you use the Shopping link from the results page of either Bing or Google, the results seem to be about equal, though I have to admit that I haven’t actual used either to really make a buying 
decision. Bing has introduced the Bing cashback (formerly Microsoft Live Cashback) incentive which might be enough of an incentive to sway some people.
Interestingly, when I entered some product names neither search recognized that I was searching for a product, and I had to click on ’shopping’ at the top of each page to tell them I was looking for shopping results. Seems like it would be useful to have that auto-detected, and at least show a link to suggest the shopping option when appropriate.
Result: Bing might be the better choice for shopping searches.
Think Global – Search Local
If I search for weather, Bing gives my local weather, Google does not. However, if I search for weather Toronto (which is what I am in the habit of doing) the results are about the same. Strangely for the search movies, both recognize that I’m looking for movies in Toronto. If I search for a local business, both Google and Bing return a map and specific details of that business first, followed by relevant results.
Incidently, when I begain this post, the Bing weather search for Toronto returned the results in degrees Farenheit (see below). In the last week, it has changed to Celcius. This demonstrates that they are continually working to improve their results.
Result: Bing may have the edge in local search.
On The Road Again
A little surprised here. I had heard that Bing excels in the area of travel but perhaps you need to know how to search in the correct way. I searched for toronto, ON to phoenix, AZ and it was Google that returned the relevant quick-links for planning a trip from Toronto to Pheonix and Bing returned only generic links about Phoenix. I wondered if including a non-US location was what was tripping Bing up, and sure enough a search for San Francisco, CA to Phoenix, AZ returned better results in Bing. Hmm.
Incidentally, the SF to Phoenix search returned good results when I began writing this post. Now, the results are generic and don’t recognize this as a travel-based search. Looks like their ‘improvements’ can go both ways.
It is my understanding that Bing offers some pretty cool tools for choosing flights and getting the best price. Certainly a quick look at http://www.bing.com/travel/ reveals a much more useful search than either of those noted above.
Result: Google results are good. Bing might be better, but you need to know where to go to initiate a travel search.
I Want Real-Time and I Want It Now
There’s a lot of interest in real-time search these days. Neither of these search engines are able to be truly real-time, but timeliness is still important especially when it comes to news or current events. I tried searching for Outside Workers Toronto because there may be a strike looming. The first result for Bing was a CBC article from 2002. That’s right 2002!?! Clicking on ‘News’ actually gives a link from 3 hrs ago. Google returned that 3hr old article at the very top, and suggests linking to more ‘news’ articles.
Incidentally, since originally drafting this paragraph, the above search on Bing now returns an article from June 11, 2009 (3 days ag0).
Google also has (with little fanfare) added search options which allow you to choose results from the last 24 hours or in the last year. Hugely useful if the information you’re looking for is recent. To use these tools click Search Options just above the returned list of links. This will reveal the choices in the left sidebar of the page. In my opinion, these options should be visible by default.
Result: Google results seem to be more timely and the search options are great. Not a good area to be behind on Bing.
Looking For Videos?
Bing offers a good feature when videos appear in the search results. The video thumbnail will actually show a short preview of the video if you roll over it (including audio). I don’t know how useful this really is but it is kind of cool. I did a search for the The Fratellis, and several videos appeared at the top of the list that I could preview before deciding on what I might click through to.
Result: Bing is ahead of Google here in the way that video thumbnails are presented. I can’t say whether the results are better or not.
Which Search Engine Will I Use?
Good question. (thanks) For the time-being, I am going to use both. I may settle back into using Google all the time, but I think it’s more likely that I am going to choose both at different times depending on what I am searching for. It has also become clear over the course of drafting this post that the landscape is changing on a daily basis. This may not be noticeably if you don’t perform the same search a few days apart, but hopefully this means that search is going to continue to get better and better.
Prediction: Google will add features to respond to Bing and prevent Bing from significantly eating in to their market share.
A Question For a Future Post
What effect will changes in search have on SEO (search engine optimization) for site developers?
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