Bing Search Engine from Microsoft

Bing Search Engine from Microsoft

Microsoft's new search engine will be named Bing. Microsoft is planning a huge advertising campaign to launch Bing. It is reported that it will be as large as $80-$100 million on TV, Online and radio! Microsoft is hoping this huge advertising push for Bing will point some light towards them and gain some buzz.

Check out the New Bing Search Engine Community BingHub.com

In spite of the progress made by search engines, 40 percent of queries go unanswered; half of queries are about searchers returning to previous tasks; and 46 percent of search sessions are longer than 20 minutes. These and many other learnings suggest that customers often don't find what they need from search today

Check out this hub about Bing

Microsoft will be offering a new type of search engine that is more accurate in its search results, according to them. Microsoft has data that points to the high percentage of search queries that must be refined and refocused to provide the "actual" desired information.

Microsoft believes, through Bing they can provide a better and more useful search experience that helps you not just search but accomplish tasks. During the test, features will vary by country, but you'll see results organized in a way that saves you more time. An explorer pane on the left side of results pages will give you access to tools that help you with your tasks. Other features like single session history and hover preview help accomplish more in search sessions

While little is officially known about Bing, the Wall Street Journal has reported Microsoft will unveil the new search engine next week. Some industry analysts said they already have been briefed about the search engine under nondisclosure agreements.

Microsoft has never publicly acknowledged that it will rename its Live Search engine Bing, but the company has confirmed it's testing a search engine internally using the Bing.com URL. Bing is another name rumored to be the rebrand for the next iteration of Live Search.

Some believe the new search engine won't have any new technology beyond what competitors Google and Yahoo already have, based on screenshots of Bing that were leaked to the Web in March, said Greg Sterling, analyst with Sterling Market Intelligence.

"It doesn't look radically different from the current form of so-called universal search," he said. However, Microsoft apparently has been doing work on the back end to improve the search engine, which won't be evident to people until they use the new engine, Sterling said.

Microsoft is expected to include some of the features of the Powerset search engine it acquired last June from the San Francisco-based startup. Powerset developed a technology that attempts to understand the full meanings of phrases people type while searching, returning results based on that understanding.

Sterling, who has seen the new search engine but is not at liberty to disclose details of it, said that Microsoft believes it has identified a problem people have with finding what they're looking for with competitive search engines, and the company believes it can solve that problem.

"They think they can do a better job of fulfilling those unmet needs," he said.

Microsoft currently is a distant third behind Google and Yahoo in search-engine market share, and it has been investing significantly for a number of years to change that status.

Because Google has such a strong brand and so many people use it, it will be difficult for Microsoft to improve its position, Sterling said.

"People's behavior is pretty well established," he said. "You'd have to find some feature or set of features that's real useful or fun or interesting."

Whether Bing's features are a huge jump forward over Google's new tools or Yahoo's upcoming overhaul is hard to know since no one outside of Microsoft has had a chance to try Bing. This week, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer is expected to demonstrate Bing during D: All Things D conference, which runs from May 26-28. It's not clear if Ballmer will announce a launch date for the new search engine from All Things D; however, once Bing is finally available to the public, I have no doubt many people will want to test drive the new search engine. But even if Bing can win over some early converts, the true test will be whether those users are still 'Binging' instead of 'Googling' a month or two later.

Service is not the only obstacle for a challenger to Google's dominance either. To keep users coming back for more, Microsoft must dislodge the idea from the public consciousness that the name Google is synonymous with Internet search. Will 100 million greenbacks be enough to convince people that 'to Google' is not actually a verb? Microsoft may think so, but what do you say?