The search engine market took a new direction in 2009 when Microsoft decided to introduce their search engine, Bing. By then there were already Google and Yahoo in the search engine market. Since Bing’s launch, which was said to have cost a massive 100 million dollars, there has been a debate on which engine offers unique and better services between Google and Bing. The two search engines have almost a similar way of searching which makes users unsure of what Bing offers that Google does not or vice versa.
The organization of the search results on the page background brings out a difference between Google and Bing. The two search engines provide almost identical information for every search except from the organization. Google gives a more extensive elaboration of sources of the results compared to Bing. Google will provide options on the left of the page where the searcher can choose sources from blogs, books and news. However, Bing provides similar narrowing of sources only that they individualize the source depending on the search.
Another comparison is the visuals where Google has a minimalist design on their home web page with less aesthetic flair. Bing, however, gives an appealing web page design with beautiful and quality graphics. However, the graphics and visuals do not seem to count much when it comes to online research. People seem to concentrate on the performance of the search engine rather than aesthetics. Google’s streamlined template differs from Bing’s just like Google Chrome differs from Microsoft’s poor Internet Explorer.
Bing has extra search functions that Google lacks. Bing provides an easy and fast list of searches related to the main search of the researcher. Bing keeps the searcher’s latest history which can be cleared anytime. Its sidebar’s design is centered on minimizing the individual searches a researcher wants to employ in order to obtain the desired information. This makes Bing user friendly. However, Google provides comprehensive search functions on the sidebar which gives them an advantage during research on recent material on any topic. It allows the searcher to narrow down to a given time frame or domain name which is also user friendly and convenient.
In terms of image results, both search engines provide decent results. However, Bing has been found to produce problematic images, some duplicated while some were clip arts. Google on the other hand produces unique images which are more likely to be desirable to users. The presentation of images on Google is also more desirable due to the arrangement and thumbnail sizes compared to Bing’s grid line arrangement. Visually, Bing had an upper hand at the beginning with a good layout and search results. However, Google has improved significantly and is now better with more search features, better results and design.
Bing provides for the sharing of search results on social networks, gives document previews and allows users to block their page previews. Google does not provide for any of these three things giving Bing an advantage in the search engine battle. In conclusion, both Google and Bing provide the information required in an efficient and easy manner. However, Google stands out because of its many advantages over Bing. This does not mean Google is the better search engine, it only varies from one user to another, some prefer Bing and others Google.
References
Wixman, M. (2012, February 02). Google vs. Bing what is the Difference? Retrieved May 27, 2012, from SooperArticles: http://www.sooperarticles.com/internet-articles/search-engine-marketing-articles/google-vs-bing-what-difference-292205.html
