It's Not Google or Bing, It's You
Sunday June 7, 2009
This week Microsoft unveiled their rival search engine Bing, to challenge Google's market dominance. The company is attempting to position itself as a "decision engine" and is throwing its marketing muscle behind the launch with a $100 million media spend. The television commercials play to a searchers frustration in finding relevant results with an emphasis on search overload.
The problem in finding what you need in a search isn't Google's problem or even a viable fix with Bing. No, the problem is the searcher. As previously working with Google Answers and currently a search engine optimization provider, I find that we as a society lack the search skills necessary in today's Internet age.
As I discussed in Make Your Business Search Smart:
The fast-growing skill of the business professional is and will continue to be the use of knowledge. This translates into the ability to find and use critical information to make the best business decisions. If you or someone on your staff is not savvy enough to search for business information and put it to use than your business will be out maneuvered and out of business.
Why is there so much emotion (positive and negative) when a news story focuses on Microsoft? Let’s stick with the facts and how they might or might not impact us. In what ways is Bing better or worse than Google or Yahoo? How will (or should) Bing’s introduction affect marketers? Here are my newest thoughts on Bing, Yahoo!, and Google.
I agree that the problem with searching usually lies with the searcher; normal people do not know the proper operands that can help filter the results. But, I also believe that it is a bad idea to allow Google to remain the dominant search engine because ultimately, if it already has not happened, they can influence the search results based on factors other than the searcher intended.
Interesting note, Darrell! However, I would point out that Microsoft really HAS done something interesting and different in the search engine. The fact that they call the BING as a “decision engine” really highlights that their product is a bit different this time around. I’m definitely not the most avid supporter of Microsoft by any means, however, I do applaud what they are doing.
Coming from
Boost eLearning (www.boostelearning.com) provides Google Search Training to solve for the exact issue raised in this article. Google has 15 Operators that empower the user to obtain high value information.
I should point out that Bing does not have the breath of search functions as Google. For example, on Bing you can not search by time.
Victor