Yesterday Fred Wilson proposed we give bing a chance. He set his default search to Bing and promised his reaction to it in the coming days. Later TechCrunch’s MG Siegler reminds us that back in the 90s he was something of a Microsoft fanboy before going on to admit:
I mocked Bing from the second I heard its name, as basically a non-starter. But here we are a few weeks later, and I’m still hearing a significant number of people talking about it when I go various places. At the very least, that’s a marketing win for Microsoft — but that will only get you so far. More interesting to me is that Bing does actually seem to be pretty good at what it was built to do: Search — er, sorry, “Discovery.”
Take tonight, for example. The Los Angeles Lakers just won the NBA title, so there are a ton of searches right now for Kobe Bryant, the Lakers’ star player. I just did a search for him on both Bing and Google, and to be honest, Bing’s results are a lot better, at least for the here and now.
And CNet asks today, Does Microsoft’s Bing have Google running scared?
Microsoft may have developed a contender that threatens Google’s Web search dominance.
In a story headlined “Fear grips Google,” the New York Post reports that the launch of Microsoft’s Bing search engine has so upset Google co-founder Sergey Brin that he has top engineers working on “urgent upgrades” to Google’s service. Brin is said to be leading a team to determine how Microsoft’s search algorithm differs from the closely guarded one Google employs. The tabloid also notes that it’s rare for Google’s co-founders to have such a hands-on involvement in the company’s daily operations.
I’ve actually been going in the opposite direction of these guys. I read the early word on Bing and started using it right away. Maybe it’s something in the way I search — or that old habits die hard keep me from discovering the gold in Microsoft’s results — but to date I’ve remained more comfortable with Google.
All the buzz convinces me to keep on trying BING!
RELATED: Bing Zaps Commercials On The Daily Show (& More Shows Coming Soon). Very cool move:
Microsoft’s ad campaign for Bing took a(nother) turn for the clever tonight on The Daily Show with a new campaign called “Fast Forward.” It’s the first in a week-long run of advertising that will see Microsoft paying for several minutes of commercial time, only to air a 30-second spot in place of several ads.
Here’s Microsoft’s (corrected) #2 Bing commercial: