Unsatisfied with Google’s seemingly widespread domination of all things online, Microsoft reloads with Bing, adding to an already saturated market of search engines. Bing is the replacement search engine for Live Search (also formerly known as Windows Live Search or MSN Search) and the latest effort from Microsoft to compete with tech rival, Google. Microsoft’s many search engine versions never really gained ground on Google, occupying only a relatively small percentage of its market share, as shown in recent comScore stats – likely due to its comparatively lackluster and detached SERPs or search engine results pages. But Bing is a horse of a different color and is on the cusp of becoming a definite game-changer in the ways we conduct Internet searches. The draw for Google has always been the ease of use and instantaneous access to relevant Web pages, blogs, images, videos, among anything else that we may be seeking. Bing brings all of this and quite possibly more with the attractive interface and features, “decision-making” predictive results, and (most-importantly) relevant and organized interactive search engine results. Kudos to Microsoft for seeming to finally getting it right.
Much debate and discussion has ensued in recent weeks on Bing and what it means for Web searching, and will likely continue as everyone grasps the new tool and makes their own judgments on the question “Is Bing the new Google?” From what I’ve seen, it’s not likely that Bing will surpass Google in dominance anytime soon. After all, Google is so imprinted into our systems and our brains, “google” even became a verb in 2006! A majority of Web users turn to Google first when searching, and it will take some incredible features and far-better search results for the world to all make the switch to Bing. But what Bing does bring is a healthy dose of competition and a dependable alternative to Google. This will obviously force both companies to continue to improve in order to thrive in the market, which is definitely a good thing for users of either engine. But if Bing continues to generate interest and gains more market share as indicated by additional comScore stats, in time we might see a more-pronounced switch of key players.
Now what does this all mean for those of us in healthcare? Over the next few weeks, we’ll be analyzing this technology and sharing important information that is relevant to our industry. Look for our upcoming blog posts exploring the differences between the search engines, how Bing impacts your company’s Web presence and what changes you’ll need to make in your search engine marketing efforts. In the meantime, check out the new tool as a consumer to determine whether you think it’s worth the switch. If you still can’t decide, there’s already a new application that allows you to search and see results from both engines side-by-side so you can compare results between the two. You may be discovering a whole new way to google!
