Testing Bing: The Final Verdict

So after all these articles about Google and Bing, what’s the final world?  Well, it now comes down to to personal preference.  That’s not a non-answer; it’s a huge change.  A year ago, there was no reason to ever touch anything but Google.  Now, there’s a real contender.

Sure, the results aren’t quite as good.  Yes, Microsoft still has work to do to fix a few stupid oversights and tie things together a bit better.  But not only is it a decent substitute, but there are now certain types of searches and certain features where, quite frankly, Bing beats Google hands down.

And even if you unequivocally prefer Google’s results, there’s still a really good reason to root for Bing: competition.  Everyone loves to hate Microsoft: the big, evil, money-grubbing monopoly that rules the computing world with an iron fist.  But these days, it’s not much of a monopoly: for every product Microsoft makes, there’s guaranteed to be an entirely viable alternative.  Sometimes these alternatives are free (looking at you, Ubuntu and OpenOffice), and other times they’re perceived as ‘superior’, either for good reasons (hi, Nokia) or not (hello, Apple).  People trust Microsoft like they trust Snap-On: they make good – if somewhat overpriced – tools.  But they’re just tools.  If something goes wrong with one tool, you replace it with another.

Google, on the other hand, is far more frightening, for they peddle information.  Many people out there trust Google for not just searching the Internet, but also with running their e-mail and chat and contacts and calendaring (Gmail), saving their documents (Google Apps), entertaining them (Google owns YouTube, not to mention Google Video), teaching them (Google Maps, Google Books, Google Scholar), informing them of current events (Google News), and even handling money (Google Finance).  They run an advertising empire the likes of which has never been seen before, and through Google Analytics (a free tool used by many webmasters, including us) and people clicking on their search results pages, they know with astonishing detail who goes to what web sites, what they read, what they type, and who they are.  Every future dystopia we’ve dreamed of has an evil mega-corporation running the universe (SkyNet, OCP, Global Dynamics), and in real life, Google comes closest.

I’m not saying to dump Google in favour of Bing – it’s nowhere near that good.  But consider it another tool.  You might want to set Bing to be your home page and keep Google as your default search provider (or vice versa) so you don’t ‘forget’ about one or the other.  That way, both tools are handy when you need them.

Because ultimately, that’s all these are: tools.  One just got better.  That’s never a bad thing.

Testing Bing, Part 3: The Experience

So I’ve talked about the quality of search results returned by Bing and Google.  I’ve gone over their features in depth.  But there’s one more element that should be considered: the overall experience.  How well is everything tied together?  How easy is it all to use?

We all know and love Google.  The UI is very simple.  It’s not particularly pretty, but it is easy to use.  Everything you’d want to find somehow appears exactly where you’re looking for it.  The lack of clutter brings the focus to what’s important.  People love Google because it keeps all the complexity away from you until you reach for it.  Sometimes, it almost feels smart.

Bing, on the other hand, just doesn’t get this.  The home page is fine.  It’s pretty, it reveals the various search types and features available, it gives you something interesting to look it, and it keeps the focus on your search.  But once you actually run the search, everything falls apart.

Why exactly does Bing behave so differently in different regions?  Try setting your region to Canada, and Bing is an entirely different animal than, say, United States.  The British site is again different.  They all expose different features, they use different layouts, and quite simply, they work differently.  This is confusing.  It’s also rather dumb: the rest of the world matters these days.

It’s great that Bing can suggest related searches for me.  I appreciate it.  But look at all these places and ways it does so:

• Main categories along the top left, emphasized with color.
• “Similar to this” links at the top right.
• “Related Searches” at the left.
• “Search history” at the bottom left.
• Seemingly random links through the body of the results.

It’s baffling!  It clutters things up, and it gets in the way of my results.  Often, Bing will even run a few of these related searches and display the first few results.  Again, this might sound good in theory, but in real life, I now only get to see three or four results for what I actually searched on, and then the rest of the pages are basically Bing running amuck, wandering around doing what it feels like.  Where’s my control?  I’m running this search, I want Bing to do what I tell it to!

Another question: why are pictures displayed at the top and videos displayed at the bottom?  Why do you sometimes get only pictures, sometimes only video, sometimes both, and sometimes neither?  Why do image results use a slick ‘infinite scroll’ feature, but videos (and everything else) uses the old-school ‘Next Page’ routine?  Why do some search results have summary info at the top (such as flight status) and some results have it at the bottom (such as company details)? Why are additional links for a particular result sometimes displayed in a list under the result, sometimes one one line, and sometimes buried in the popup? What’s the deal with the search categories on the left… are they more ‘suggested searches’?  Links to other types of Bing searches?  Links to Wikipedia?  All of the above?

Basically, Microsoft is so busy cramming everything they can think of into Bing that they forgot the first rule: make it easy.  Often, I really have no idea where I’m supposed to click, or find my results, once I run a search.  Sure, it only takes a moment to figure it out, but you know what?  It only takes a moment to switch to Google, too.  And guess what I’m more likely to do?

Yes, Google has its problems, too… but nothing so bad as Bing.  It’s too bad, really… Bing has the results, the features, a nice UI, and pretty much everything needed to be a great competitor to Google, but Microsoft just didn’t tie it together.

The verdict: Your call.  Ultimately, you need to decide if you prefer a utilitarian 90’s style UI built by programmers (like Google) or a snazzy, modern, distracting UI built by committee (Bing).  To be honest, somewhere right in the middle would be perfect, but I’m still waiting for that one.

Testing Bing, Part 2: The Features – Everything Else

And then, we get to the areas where there aren’t direct comparisons. Google has a lot more going for it than I’ve shown so far. There’s Book Search, Google Scholar, Google Finance, the translation service, and a few other odds and ends. These are all really useful, valuable tools. I won’t detail them here, because anyone who cares has known about these for a long time now. Still, they work, and they work well. They matter. And Microsoft doesn’t have much of an answer to most of them.

But Bing can now say the same about a few things they alone offer. Have a look at their Travel results page for a particular route:

There’s a wealth of information here that’s never really been brought together like this before. Right away, I see how much this fare is going to cost me today and whether the price is likely to go up, down, or hold steady. I can see prices by day on a simple calendar view, I can see the history of lowest fares on a graph, and – of course – I can search for specific flights. This is huge. And there’s a similar breakdown for hotels:

This is not too different than the many travel-oriented sites already out there, but there’s one key difference: Bing is focused on informing you, not selling you. Bing also brings some really nice intelligence to a variety of searches. Google does the same, sometimes (like flight status), but Bing goes further. How about a search for a Mazda 2? Or malaria? The size of Alberta?

This is really helpful. Rather than scour through web pages, the information you wanted is right there.

The verdict: None. Luckily, you don’t have to choose. Want to search through books? Use Google Book Search. Want to find a cheap flight? Use Bing. Until one search engine eclipses another here, there’s really no reason to choose one. Use the tools that are out there.

Testing Bing, Part 2: The Features - Shopping

Google has had shopping tools for a long time, but they haven’t really been particularly popular – or promoted. Now Bing joins the game.

They both do the basics: you type what you want to buy, and you see a list of products, along with description, price, and reviews. They both let you filter your results by price ranges, brands, and so on. They both let you see price comparisons for a particular product, and they both offer details like tech specs and so on.

Bing keeps going. Bing lets you sort your results by either user or expert ratings. The resulting order seems to be more accurate than Google – on my example (plasma TVs), Bing has clear market leaders Pioneer and Panasonic firmly at the top, while Pioneer is nowhere to be seen in Google’s top picks. Bing also breaks down popular features (in this example, Picture, Sound Quality, Ease of Use, and so on) and lets you rank the results accordingly. There’s Bing’s Cashback feature, but I’m not convinced this is much more than a gimmick, so I’ll leave that for now.

The verdict: Bing is slightly better in features, presentation, and ratings. Google is a strong contender, though.

Testing Bing, Part 2: The Features - News

Bing and Google both have news searching, too. The results are about similar. They both have pretty similar features.

Google offers more tools to narrow down your results – particularly, by limiting by date. This seems like a pretty glaring omission on Microsoft’s part for a news search. Bing’s Related Searches tool is very helpful here, though… it’s kind of like a ‘News Topics at a Glance’ for your search term.

Both engines also offer a news overview page. Google wins on content here – lots of news, broken down into nice, easy to read categories, with plenty of customization if you want it. Bing fights back with their video previews. With the auto-play, this is a lot like having the video segments of the day’s news available for you to see or skip as you like.

The verdict: Google wins. Bing brings some nice stuff to the table, but between Google’s better search tools and a news overview page is much more informative and easy to read, Bing falls behind.

Testing Bing, Part 2: The Features – Maps

Bing and Google both have map search. They’re both really good.

In this example, Bing knew exactly what to do with my search, and Google had no clue. I’m not quite willing to admit that Bing has the upper hand on search here – there are times that Google is smarter – but Bing certainly isn’t worse.

In terms of map coverage, Google and Bing are roughly equal. Some places are better covered by one service, some by the other. They’re both aggressively improving this. Google has Street View, Bing has Bird’s Eye. Bing has 3D mode, Google has Google Earth. They both have nice UIs here.

What more can I say? This is a huge area, and is used by many people. They both provide a huge feature set here – I’m still kind of amazed this is all free – but they’re so similar that it all comes down to personal preference. I probably prefer Bing’s UI, but I can’t really justify why.

The verdict: Tie. Pick whichever you like. If it’s not working for you, then try the other.

Testing Bing, Part 2: The Features – Video Search

Bing and Google both have video search, too. They both work:

But again, Bing outdoes Google. Bing presents a beautiful – and useful – grid view of search results (or, if you prefer, you can switch to a details view). Google has a weird mix of search results, video preview, related videos, options, and more. It doesn’t work very well. And perhaps most importantly, you can only see a third as many of your results at a time as in Bing. And isn’t that why you came here?

Bing has a great video preview mode, where you can see the video play (with sound!) as you hold your mouse over it. This has proved controversial since it lets people see porn, but I don’t understand why. Bing filters these results by default, and both Google and Bing let you see thumbnails if you choose to un-filter these results. Why is a static thumbnail of a boob okay, but an animated one isn’t? Whatever. Apparently, Microsoft has fixed this somehow, anyway. What really matters is that this is a very friendly, useful way of offering video preview.

The page you get when you click a video to watch it is much better, too:

Depending on where you click, Google will either load the video into the annoyingly small preview pane, or will take you to it’s player screen. Due to a bunch of information most people won’t care about by the time they’re watching the video, the actual player itself is somewhat cramped. Bing very rightly puts the focus on the video itself, orienting the page to allow for widescreen video in a nice big player. Thank you!

The verdict: Bing wins again. Come on, Google, quit letting your programmers design your UI.

Testing Bing, Part 2: The Features – Image Search

Bing and Google both have image search. The search results are about equal. They both work reasonably well, but both suffer from problems where the image you click on isn’t available. This seems to be more of a problem with Google, but perhaps only because Google is much more popular.

But what a difference in how things are presented and how you can refine your results! Google has a few things you can tinker with – the image size, the type of content, and – oddly enough – the dominant color. I’m not sure why you’d use this, but I’m sure graphic designers ripping off other people’s images really like it.

Bing, on the other hand, offers all this and more. They have a beautifully organized layout that fits to your browser and offers ‘infinite’ scroll. They let you change the way results are presented – small, medium, or large previews, as well as a details view. They offer more – and more useful – controls for tinkering with your search results. There’s a ‘Wallpaper’ option available under Size which Google lacks, and this is a thing of beauty: only images the same size and orientation as your current monitor (or primary monitor, for us multi-display folks) are returned:

This works so well that I almost wish it was integrated right into Display Properties. Normal people don’t care about resolution or aspect ratios, they just want to look at pretty pictures and click the one they like. Bing lets you do this. Google doesn’t.

There’s one other area where Bing beats Google, and that’s the page you get when you click on an image in your search results:

Google has a pretty basic ‘here’s your image and here’s the page it’s on’ approach. It’s kind of a crappy compromise between keeping you in Google and letting you see the image’s page. It sucks at both. Some sites have even figured out how to get rid of the Google frame along the top, so you entirely lose your Google search tools. Bing, on the other hand, keeps you entirely within the Bing UI – all the usual tools and layout are there. There are very easy to find links to view the full-size image or the source page in their own window. The source page itself is presented inside a frame, so you can see it without letting it take over your browser. Perhaps most importantly, though, your results are still available on the left. Want to check out the next image? Rather than dealing with whatever shenanigans the source page has dealt you, clicking back, finding where you where, and then clicking the next image in the list, all you have to do is browse and click. Very nice.

The Verdict: Bing wins hands down, again. Google should really be ashamed of this one; their image search UI is beyond basic and into shoddy, while Bing really does bring some useful new tools to the table.

Testing Bing, Part 2: The Features – Result Preview

Rather than click on a result and see what you’ve found, it’s very helpful to be able to get a bit more information right from the search results page. Both Google and Bing both offer tools to help with this:

Google presents a sort of Table of Contents for the search result, if possible. It will also reveal a few other helpful hints when it can, like the stock quote link here. Bing presents a similar ‘Also on the page’ section, although it’s hidden until you move your mouse over the result. Some results have links to the various sections on the page. You’ll also note that Bing presents me with the number for Customer Service; that’s a nice touch.

I’m not really sure which one is better here; it seems to depend on the exact search. They both try to go deeper into the page, with varying degrees of success.

The verdict: Tie. Neither engine seems to have a serious advantage here. They could both use some improvement.

Testing Bing, Part 2: The Features – Advanced Search

Once in a while, you want to be a bit more specific about your search.  Sure, if you really know your stuff, you can just add some special terms to your query, but for us humans, some UI would be nice.  They both offer it:

 

Unfortunately, they could both do with some improvement.  Google presents you with a dizzying array of options, with some not visible until you scroll down and click the ‘Show me more stuff’ link.  It feels a little like opening a door in a nicely finished house and finding a room with bare concrete and a single dirty light bulb hanging from a cord.  Microsoft organizes their advanced search options pretty well, using tabs that appear between the search box and the search results.  Very nice.  Of course, it’s easy to look organized when you only have half as many options to present.  Also, most people won’t find the Bing advanced options link right away: it’s tucked away in an easy-to-miss place on the results page, and doesn’t even exist on the home page.

Ultimately, Google takes the crown here.  Even though they’re not as nicely presented – or sometimes, not presented at all, just available if you happen to know the magic word to type – Google does have more flexibility in customizing your search.

The verdict: Google wins.  I guess.  But they both kind of suck.

Testing Bing, Part 2: The Features – Search Suggestions

Even though Bing’s search results are as good as Google’s, they are acceptable.  But while a decent algorithm might have been enough for a search engine five years ago, people want more these days.  Let’s take a look at what extra features Google and Microsoft both bring to the table.  I’m going to keep this specific to search itself; it’s great that Google offers me an online version of WordPad, but that doesn’t help me when I’m using their search engine.

The next few articles will be image heavy, so I’m going to use thumbnails.  Just click an image to view the full-size version.

When you begin to type a search query in either Google or Bing, you get a pop-up list of suggested queries:

 

This is essentially IntelliSense for the Internet, and it’s very helpful.  The suggestions they offer are usually different, but are generally both equally useful once you type enough of your search terms, and equally useless until you do.  Google does have one shortfall here, though: auto-suggest only works from the main page – and in this case, it pops up on top of the ‘Search’ button – not a problem for us experts, but for some people, this will be very annoying.  The search box on the search results page doesn’t have this feature at all.  Since this is where people are likely to refine their suggestions, this is a dumb move.

Bing, on the other hand, does this very nicely:

Not only do you have auto-suggest when typing, but Bing also offers a list of terms to help narrow down your search.  It works very well, and while I don’t see it being quite as useful to us technical types – if we wanted to read about WestJet’s fleet, we’d just have typed ‘WestJet Fleet’ to begin with – but for those who don’t live and breath Internet, this will be very helpful.  Bing also shows a list of related searches, your own personal search history (with easy Clear and Turn Off links for those who want to cover their tracks a bit), and over on the right, a list of sites similar to the ‘best match’ result.

The verdict: Bing wins hands down.  Come on, Google, this is an easy one to fix.

Testing Bing, Part 1: The Search Results

My counterpart recently wrote an article on Bing.  The verdict?  “Bing is all hype.”  A few minor UI enhancements over the same shitty old search engine, just painting the pig.  I disagree.  I’m going to examine and compare Bing and Google (because let’s face it: nothing else matters) in the three core aspects that really matter: the results, the features, and the overall experience.

The first, and probably the most important, is the quality of the searching algorithm.  If the results suck, nothing else matters.  Google excels at this, and for years, no one else has even come close.  They’ve built an Internet empire around this, and for good reason.  It works.  It’s the backbone and starting point of the entire Internet, from a user’s point of view, and it does this better than anyone else.  If Google.com goes down, most people (myself included) really don’t know what to do.

But you know what?  Microsoft is catching up.  Bing is no huge leap forward in search results – in fact, I suspect it’s the same core search engine that was Live and MSN before that.  It’s still not as good as Google.  But it’s not bad anymore.  I know: I have Bing as my home page, Google as my default search provider, and I use both of them frequently.  I generally prefer Google, but for the most part, it doesn’t make a huge difference anymore.

And I have proof: some kind soul has set up a simple double-blind experiment where you can test results yourself:

Until it got popular and “some douche” started gaming the system, results were split surprisingly equally between Microsoft and Google.  The number of people who preferred Google’s results (remember, this is a blind test; they’re picking the results, not the brand) varied from 36% to 43%.  Microsoft had between 31% and 38%, and Yahoo had between 22% and 29%.  Remember, if all three were equally good, they’d all be 33%.  That 5% difference isn’t really too big.

Perhaps more importantly: Bing is getting better while Google is getting worse.  This is, perhaps, inevitable: it’s hard to stay on top forever.  Google is the target of every slimy hack out there trying to get a bit of cash from having a useless, ad-ridden site pop up on Google, and generally the sites with real content are more concerned about working on their real content or doing their real work than they are fiddling with search engine rankings.  By the way, don’t forget to check out our ads and affiliate links!

Sure, there are a few places where Bing really sucks.  For example, searching for a valid URL should always, always return that page.  Normal people don’t know or care if they’re typing in a URL field or a Search field; they just want to go there.  Even technical people work this way: I love Google Chrome’s combined URL / Search box.  There’s no reason a browser or search engine shouldn’t be smart enough to tell the difference between a URL and a search query these days.  But I’ve also run into queries where Google returns nothing but ads and useless aggregator sites while Bing returns exactly what I’m looking for.

So, while it’s pretty clear that Google is still the winner, Microsoft isn’t really that far behind anymore.  It’s the usual old Microsoft strategy: start late, start shitty, and keep throwing money at the problem until you’re winning.  Like or it not, that strategy usually works, and it looks like it’s in the process of working here, too.

So, in summary:

• Google is usually still better.
• Bing isn’t too far behind, for most searches.
• Bing handles URLs horribly – a huge problem, but one easily fixed.
• Both Google and Bing almost always return clearly obvious ‘best matches’ first.
• For real people, both Google and Bing are now perfectly adequate, most of the time.
• Google and Bing return different results.  If you’re not finding what you want on one, try the other.
• If you still use Yahoo, it’s time to pay your final respects and move on.

My verdict: Google still has the advantage here, but Bing isn’t too far behind – and it’s slowly catching up.

Next time, I’ll talk about the extra features Google and Bing bring to the table.

Bing has arrived.

 

Glowing blue, Seattle residents were yesterday treated to (or subjected to perhaps) the launch of Microsoft’s highly touted new search engine. The words Bing, glowing brightly on top of the Space Needle, kicked off, what Microsoft says is going to revolutionize our search engine experience. So confident they are of this fact, they have decided that a search engine is to be no longer referred to as a “search engine”, but rather a “decision engine.”

So, my question was, is it all hype?

The answer to that, at least in my mind, is actually fairly clear. Let’s look at this closer so you may decide for yourself.

Microsoft embarked on a research campaign last year trying to figure out what was wrong with search engines (or more precisely – THEIR search engine), looked at these issues in depth and created reports for these. Overwhelmingly, their insight and conclusions seem great. In fact, I would say that they have hit the proverbial nail right on the head. GREAT I’m ready for change! It seems they have discovered what we (Slick IT readers) have known all along – users want their search engine to quit being a pain in the ass.

For example, users want their search engine to actually bring up a hotel’s website when they key in the name of a hotel. They want their search queries to be organized and they want it to actually be related to their query. Why? Because they want to make decisions from this information. They want to decide on a winter vacation. They want to decide on a new pair of boots. They want to decide on a new adult dating website. Everything is about making a decision according to the folks in Redmond.

OK, I agree. That’s probably all true. Instinctively, we are now left with the burning question. How did the makers of Vista accomplish all of this?

Ok, so they have now incorporated “Best Match” technology that “surfaces” the best answer. Secondly, they have “Deep Links” that provide more insight into a search by getting deeper within the site. “Preview” is also a new feature that actually gives a glimpse of the website when you hover over the link. Finally, there is instant answers that will tell you what time your spouse’s flight will arrive just by keying in the flight number.

Well, I have to be honest. I have used Microsoft’s search engine in the past and was presented with what basically amounted to a pile of crap with each and every search so I was curious to see how they had revolutionized it and were going to forever change my life.

My first search query was pretty specific.  I simply keyed in:

http://www.slickit.ca 

And my “Best Match” result:

Result: dog's "lick it up" t-shirt in Gene Simmons Family Jewels in AETV ...

Ok, so that wasn’t quite what I was looking for…maybe it was just a bad example and surely our site will pop up somewhere in the results. Right? Well, I was wrong. After going through three pages of “LINKS”(I thought that we didn’t have to sift through thousands of links in Bing) I still couldn’t find the site.

OK, let’s try again.

boot server 2008

And my results:

Result:Page after page of Microsoft Certification Boot camps.

Hmm, as an IT professional looking for an answer as to why my server won’t boot, I don’t think that this is what I was looking for. Maybe if I was looking for certification boot camps I would have searched for Server 2008 Boot Camps.

Ok, well let’s try a third and final time.

QK 8161 (An Air Canada Flight)

And the result:

Result:Flight 8161 is enroute and on time.

That appeared to work well. It is exactly what I was looking for. But is it revolutionary? Umm, unfortunately not.  Google also delivered the same information on the first hit. Moreover, google was also able to deliver exactly what I was looking for when I seached for my first two queries. In the case of the first one, it provided a link right to our page and in the case of the second query,  it delivered:

Server 2008 Boot Manager - Realtime Windows Server

Again, it delivered exactly the kind of information I would expect when I enter a word included in “computer jargon” with a “piece of a computer system”.  This actually highlights what has always been wrong with the MSN, Live, or now Bing search engines. There appears to be no logic at all applied to collocating words and their connotations to deliver high quality search results. The algorithm has ALWAYS appeared to be flawed to me and Bing seems to follow suit. Fundamentally, I don’t think Microsoft has changed any of the underlying code of their search engine, but rather this is just another attempt to rebrand. The ideas seem nice and I am sure Google will implement some similar features in upcoming updates.

Bing is all hype. I suspect that Google will now remain my default “decision engine” for some time to come.

Thanks for reading this and please feel free to comment below should you disagree. I welcome any remarks!