The relatively recent launch of Microsoft’s new search engine Bing has also launched a new online debate. Which search engine is better?
Since Microsoft and Yahoo have partnered up, with Yahoo’s search now powered by Bing, they’ve cornered a respectable, if still nonthreatening, share of the search market. In the US at least. The jury is still out on which is the better search, but people are going to a lot of effort to try and figure it out.
For an interesting look at a direct results comparison, check out this piece from Search Engine Land.
Comparing Bing And Google Results
According to several sources though, Bing may be edging ahead on the usability score, even if it’s a long way behind on market share. Of course it’s still early days, and Google enjoys the advantage of both branding and habit, but some user reports are offering Bing a glimmer of hope.
You can use this tool to compare Bing and Google results for yourself, but here are the highlights of what people are saying is better.
* Relevant and easy to find related search options.
* Better options and related searches for product-specific searches.
* Easy to use advanced search options.
* Preview of pages in results.
In Favour of Google
There is one important reason that Google still swings more weight right now though. (Apart from the reason that more people still use it.)
To put it simply, Google has crawled a bigger chunk of the web to date. And that means a bigger index, which means more pages Google can search to find what you’re looking for.
Users still rate Google higher in niche topical searches, and suggest Google may still be better at understanding the context of your searches, as well as dealing better with very specific searches.
In Conclusion
It really is too early to tell. Bing’s market share may grow, but whether it’s at the cost of Google’s remains to be seen. At the moment, the differences in the results the two search engines return is not that significant, although the presentation and peripherals do differ.