Bing more interested in spending than searching
A Microsoft executive has admitted that Bing’s first edition is specifically targeted at shoppers who plan to spend online. It comes as the firm launches a TV commercial touting the cashback features of the site.
From the launch, Microsoft was adamant that Bing is a decision engine, not a search engine. That’s certainly born out by the user experience: it’s considerably better at helping you choose between rival products and manufacturers than it is in answering questions or finding information on a topic.
According to Mary Jo Foley of ZDNet, Microsoft now concedes that this is by design. She spoke to senior director and reports that, “He said the Bing team plans to round out Bing’s search capabilities in future iterations. But in this release, Microsoft focused on helping users get the best results for searches that involved spending money.”
That helps explain recent figures which show that while the site as a whole is growing gradually, the price comparison element of the site is performing tremendously, thanks in part to a “Double Cashback” offer.
It’s also become a key part of Microsoft’s marketing. A new commercial concentrates entirely on the fact that buying a product through Bing can earn you discounts, with no mention whatsoever of the site answering questions or finding information beyond the cheapest price.
In the short term, the strategy makes sense: visitors who are ready to splash the cash are the most valuable commodity any site can offer to potential advertisers. But in the long term emphasizing such a rampantly commercial attitude might not pay off.
The logic is presumably that people who use Bing’s shopping features will be much more likely to stick around and make Bing their main search engine. However, if the site doesn’t do as good a job as Google at answering general queries – and preferably better – it’s not likely to pick up many permanent switchers. It’s also questionable how much of the potential audience for Bing is ever going to use price comparison and cashback features rather than simply sticking to Amazon and eBay.
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September 1st, 2009
BING is an overly embellished Microsoft prototype of the famous GOOGLE. It is substandard and quite ridiculous, in that it forces the users to accept queries that BING assumes you are searching for. In the “not so political” sense…BING sucks!