Bing performance praised but marketing questioned
Just a day after Microsoft’s official unveiling of its “decision engine” Bing, there’s already a diverse reaction. Those who’ve been given advance access generally like the performance, but there are already questions over the launch.
Arguably the most detailed review comes from CNET’s Rafe Needleman. He found that for many types of search, Bing produced results comparable to those of Google (particularly for breaking news stories) though any advantages it had were fairly minimal. Needleman was more impressed with the organization of Bing results, most notably in the layout of the video search results page, which makes it much easier to find and filter clips.
Overall Needleman found Bing exceeded his expectations and, while apparently wary of declaring it as being better than Google by a clear-cut margin, told readers “Try this search engine. I do not think you will regret it.”
Meanwhile Brier Dudley of the Seattle Times – Microsoft’s hometown newspaper – found Bing impressive in some fields, but no Google-killer. He concludes that while Bing’s advantages are limited to specific types of search, such as comparison shopping, it’s healthy for Google to have such competition.
On the marketing side, Gartner’s Allan Weiner questioned the decision to announce Bing six days before the public could actually use it, noting “Such a lag can only lead to the spread of misinformation and a potential flow of negative comments across the vast social media grid prior to launch.” He also criticized the decision to unveil it at a tech industry event rather that one aimed at the public, and pondered whether a June launch might be too late to attract the biggest potential audience for the planned TV ad campaign given many stations are in re-run season.
And Trafficbroker’s Martin McNulty summed up the biggest challenge facing Microsoft, noting that however impressive some of its new features may be, “Google is embedded in our culture and language, while Bing is still in beta. That’s one hell of a gap to bridge.
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June 12th, 2009
Interesting!
I feel like there is a scarcity of good marketing today. Good marketing means which can convert the leads into sales. The only marketing that has moved me in the last couple of years is Search Engine Optimization.