Bing is now my search engine of choice

It's been a long time coming, and I've thought long and hard about it, but the time has come. I've decided to move across to using Bing as my main search engine. It was a difficult call - Google or Microsoft; which is less evil? (Actually probably about equal on that score!) I've been keeping a note of the type of searches that I tend to do, and Bing matches Google on just about all of them. For example, site: works on both, nested logic is fine, define: works, convert function works, movies: is fine, weather/time and location are all fine, intitle: does what it should, filetype:, inanchor work perfectly. I can't get synonym search with the tilde symbol, and inurl: doesn't work, which is a bit of a minus. On the other hand, I have prefer: which adds emphasis to a term, rather better than the quite frankly ridiculous Google sinker approach (repeating a keyword several times). I also lose the option of searching in Creative Commons (though Google isn't great at that anyway, so I'm not missing that much.)

So, on the functionality aspect it's pretty much a draw. When it comes to search layout it's a different matter entirely. Google's serps (search engine results page) is a complete mess. It's becoming increasingly difficult to find what I want, which is information. Having said that, the 'Show options' flyout is nice, but when I analysed how I search, the number of times that I actually use it is quite limited - usually to the 'any time' function. On the other hand, Bing has the very nice 'More on this page' flyout, which is really helpful. I also have the 'All Results' option with links directly to News/Images/Video as well. 

On the image front, I'd still put Google ahead to be honest. While I like the continual scroll that Bing provides, I do like the extra functions that Google's put into image search. However, when I want images, I tend to go to Flickr or TagGalaxy instead, so no real loss there. Video function is nicer than Google, and the instant mouseover and play is fun. 

News is a harder choice - Google gives me more immediate information, and a nice option to search back in time periods which Bing doesn't provide. However, once again I'll turn to a third party resource for that, in this case Silobreaker, which is a far superior product to anything the big two can put out. 

Maps are fairly equal in both engines, but Google has Bing beaten with the aerial option; I can zoom in much closer than on Bing. Then there's street view as well, so it's no contest on that. 

The tool bar is a real issue for me though. The vast majority of my searching is done using the toolbar, and I really like the Google version - it's small and doesn't take up much space on the browser. It also has a very nice 'search on this site' function which saves me a huge amount of time. The Bing option is very poor in comparision. It's large and clunky, looks very old fashioned and doesn't have anywhere close to the functionality of the Google counterpart. I'm not going to be getting rid of the Google bar, and I'm not going to be using the Bing one any time soon.

Of course, I've presented these elements as an either/or, and it's not like that of course. I shall continue to use both search engines (as well as the dozen or so others that I use for other more specific purposes), since they both have good functionality, and why should I deprive myself? It's just that I'll be using Bing more as a default general search engine than Google now.

I'll let you know how it goes. Oh, and I'm aware of the date, but this isn't an April Fools prank, just in case you were wondering.

Comments

[Mitch Squires]

What did I miss? You seemed to have more points stacked in favour of Google and not a lot in Bing's column. Why then make the switch?

[Phil Bradley]

Thanks for your question Mitch - it's an interesting point; I certainly felt that I'd written much more favourably about Bing. The key element for me is the serps - much cleaner, clearer and easier to read. I also really like the flyout option too.

[Kelly Ahlfeld]

I don't believe that Google is evil; they really do try to live up to their slogan "don't be evil." I know people who work for them and they are such a different company than Microsoft. Their search engine's success happened much more organically than the calculated marketing and placement strategies of Microsoft's products. You may have perceived that the "evil" comment was a throwaway one, but in an age where we search for integrity in companies, I believe Google wins hands down. Interesting too, that you consider Bing cleaner and easier to read, because when I compare the initial interface, Bing is all about extra headlines and annoying clickables, while Google has stayed true to its founding idea that the search engine home page would be a space free of ads and other distractions.

[Bryan]

I think it's testament to the fact that Bing has steadily improved that people like yourself are considering starting to use Bing as their primary search engine. Personally, I think Google still has a notable edge over all the competition, but the gap has narrowed. I still love Google's serps myself, and I'd be hard-pressed to name a single thing I like less about Google...the only change I've seen is that Bing has become better. It actually sounds like you'll still mainly be using Google yourself since most of your searches are through the Google toolbar. How good will Bing have to become before you accept its wonky toolbar?

[Phil Bradley]

Bryan - it's a seriously important point, the toolbar. Until it is as good and as flexible as the Google offering, I won't be swopping over. I use Bing in the Firefox search box (top right), so all my click and drag searches are now done using Bing.

[Stefan Weitz]

Hi Phil - thanks for the post. I know you had some hard feedback for us at launch and I'm glad to see we've been able to deliver some stuff to you that has made the experience better for you. Keep watching the maps space - we have some surprises there :) And keep the feedback coming - we do listen and are always developing/testing, and its good to get the buzz directly from the community.

Stefan Weitz
Director, Bing

[Phil Bradley]

Hi Stefan,
Thanks for dropping by. While I'm hard, I also like to think that I'm fair, and if someone does something that I think is good, or I change my mind on something, I'm honest enough to blog that as well. Looking forward to the developments!