Over the past few days, there has been more coverage on Bing, Microsoft’s new search engine than I know what to do with. Even though I am a Google lover, staying updated with new technology trends like Bing are key to keeping your business competitive-so I thought I would give Bing a try.
Aside from minor differences, the Bing feature that jumped out at me was the pop-up balloon feature. As New York Times David Pogue puts it “how’s this for a dream feature? Point to any search result without clicking; a pop-up balloon shows you the first few paragraphs of text on it. Without leaving the results list, you know if it’s going to be helpful. Simple and irresistible.”
Try searching a celebrity, business figure, or company. Along with the search results, you will find a table of related links such as quotes, biography, and images. These features are minor but seem to create a quicker, more efficient search.
Maybe the most intriguing feature and clear signal to the demand for real-time results, are Bing’s twitter results. Using Bing, the most up-to-date twitter posts appear on the top of the search results compared to Google’s link to the searched twitter. Although Bing is not indexing all twitter accounts just yet, their current efforts indicate it is in the near future.
For small to medium businesses, Bing’s current real-time data search means up-to-the-minute search information and news via Twitter. Whether you are quickly trying to fill an appointment at a discounted rate or pass along urgent news to your customers, Bing’s real-time data search is a useful tool for any business owner.
For a more detailed description, check out the New York Times Article. Either way, it is obvious that Microsoft is making a run to make Bing the best real-time search engine. If you want to a head-to-head look at the differences, check out Google vs Bingfor a split screen of the two search engines.