BING

Bing is here and it ain't all bad!
by Charlie Leck

Stanley Bing has a blog. It's called The Bing Blog.

In the last couple of days Microsoft unveiled Bing, it's powerful and glitteringly new search engine. Now you'll have to decide if you want to google something or bing it. And, believe it or not, you may be in somewhat of a dilemna.

I've had Bing up on my Internet Engine for a few days now and I've alternated between it and Google when I've done searches. Bing is every bit as good as Google and maybe a little cleaner and more pleasant. Perhaps it's because it is early in Bing's life, but there isn't so much clutter with ads and plain old garbage.

Bing seems to sense what I'm looking for and if there are unusual options it points that out, and then asks me questions to direct me further. Google is solidly tucked into the minds and hearts of almost all of us and there is going to be an enormous loyalty factor involved in making any change, but I urge you to bing instead of googling a few of your searches in the next few days, just to see how you like it.

If you use Windows Internet Explorer, go up to your search window in the very top bar and click on the little down arrow next to the magnifying glass. Then click on "find more providers" and, when you get to the list, choose Bing and then click that you want to make it one of your search engines. I made it my default search engine because I have the Google Tool Bar installed and that search option is always there.

Then go back and forth in your searches and see what you think.

Microsoft is spending an absoute fortune on advertising and promoting the roll out of this search engine. They have a huge banner today on the New York Times web site. Everywhere I turn on the web I'm seeing invitations to Bing it instead of Googling it.

Now back to poor old Stanley Bing. He's chuckling about the confusion this presents for him and is enjoying the increase in readership. For instance, I never would have come upon his blog in a million years, but, I'll tell you, it has some interesting stuff. However, it's not interesting enough to me to bookmark it, but plenty of people will. Congratulations, Stanley, because you're in the big time now.

There is also a graphic design firm out there called Bing Limited. They're far too worried about the confusing branding identity between Microsoft Bing and their little firm. "Oh, my goodness," they worry, "people will think we're copycats when we were really here first!" Suck it up, boys, and enjoy the ride. You're in for a lot of traffic and maybe some surprising business. Think big (or maybe think "bing") and make this work for your little company.