So for the first time since I first wrote about Bing's launch, I gave it a whirl. And you know what? It really might be better than Google.
]]> The first thing to note about Bing and Google is that their search results are essentially twins. Not fraternal twins, where you can see a resemblance only when you squint and compare noses. They're more like identical twins. The best place to test and verify this identical twinship is on the new site Bing vs. Google, which allows you to search a phrase and see the results from Bing and Google in side-by-side windows. In search after search -- on life-expectancy in Russia, Michael Jackson's greatest song, buy Dell computer -- you get the same sites, in the same font, in a slightly different order.
But Bing has taken its twin to beauty school and enrolled her in intense summer classes, and as a result, you have a search engine that looks better and acts smarter than Google search. First of all, let's talk about looks. Every day, the Bing homepage changes to feature a striking full-window photo with roll-over icons that teach you about the place featured. That's just cosmetic, but when you enter a search, you can click to the right side of the results to see a "pop-up balloon" that helps you preview each page before you decide to read it. Below, I've searched for Andy Rooney, and you can see the pop-up box to the right of the five grumpy faces (the arrow is mine, not Bing's).
If you don't find preview boxes useful, no sweat. They don't get in your way of
scanning what is otherwise essentially a Google results page.But wait, there's more! The left panel of suggested searches is a really useful tool -- for shopping or for researching online. For example, if hypochondriacs like me take our silly hourly health concerns to Bing, the site suggests more specific searches, which are less likely to turn up stupid results (read: exotic diseases). Here are the results for "headache":
The left column provides both commonsense sub-topics -- like Symptoms
and Relief -- and logical further searches. I do want to learn about
the different types of headaches -- what's the difference between sinus
and tension and stress varieties, anyway? This is how Bing takes your
search, and then begins to thinks for you.To be sure, there are plenty of people who don't want to be thought for. They know what they're looking for and they'll find it for themselves in the main search box, thank you very much. And for them, there is happy news: Google isn't going anywhere. But what's nice about Bing is that it is Google. It's just not afraid to look pretty, or hold your hand.
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