Not Bing… badda (bad) Google, but Bing… gooda (good) Google. I’m referring to Bing.Com, the newly released Microsoft search engine to compete with Google. It’s FAST, at least on the modest-speed mini-notebook I’ve been using from my collection. (I haven’t tried it on my hi-power laptop or slow-power desktop yet.)
I’m not a ga-ga Microsoft worshiper (who is?!) but I have to thank MS and its fallibilities for providing me the better part of a computer career in troubleshooting Windows PCs and interfaces. (Isn’t problem-solving and figuring things out what gets us through life and keeps us engaged while doing it?)
As a result I stumbled across Bing via my Hotmail and Windows Live access. Bing is the default search in use now on Microsoft-related sites such as MSN.Com and MSNBC.Com. What struck me about it was how FAST the responses were. That is part of what searching is all about, not waiting, and possibly watching whatever “in-progress” icon is being used. Of course your computer power and internet access speed will also have a lot to do with response time, but the Bing response time on MY laptop was as fast or faster as Google on the same PC.
Of equal, even greater, importance in searching, of course, is getting accurate results. So far it SEEMS to be good. Time will tell. If I find myself going back to Google for more information, then Bing will ultimately lose.
An interesting side feature of Bing is a preview mechanism. As you cursor up and down your results you will see a vertical line with a dot in the center along the right side of the results list, moving up or down to each result. If you hover your cursor over the dot you will see a preview of the result page, with links to the page or similar results. Novel idea!
As an aside, a couple of other information sites I like are About.Com and Wikipedia.Com. About.com came up for me recently when researching travel and I was amazed about how many places it took me for in-depth data. Wikipedia often comes up in search results and provides that amazing volume of info about almost anything. It tells you too when sources have not been fully verified and should be taken with a grain of salt. But the amount of information at our fingertips these days. Truly amazing.
Ah well. Bada-bing. Bada-Boom. Bing cherries. Bing, the elevator door opening. Aren’t you glad you asked me about this?
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