We’ve been paying so much attention to Google Search that our treatment of other search engines may not look evenhanded. Competition is good for everyone. At the moment, Bing, Google’s worthy competitor from the Microsoft stable, is lagging behind in market share, but please don’t tell anyone at Microsoft that Bing cannot compete with Google head to head.

Recently, when Satya Nadella took over the CEO of Microsoft some experienced SEO analysts did not forget to point out that Search veterans were now heading Google (Larry Page), Microsoft (Bing), as well as Yahoo (Marissa Meyer). It has not been lost on many that Nadella once headed the unit which oversaw Bing as well.

My money is on Microsoft to invest enough resources on the Bing team that they always remain a close competitor to Google in terms of the quality of the Search results, if not market share. Bing offers plenty of value-added free tools for the searcher, which are not limited to Keyword Research and Webmaster Tools.

Bing also powers Search for Yahoo!, and together with Yahoo!, offers the combined Yahoo!Bing network for PPC advertising on the web. Even the combination doesn’t come anywhere near Google on both organic Search as well as PPC Ads, but still they remain in play as a serious act in town.

DOES BING OFFER SUPERIOR SEARCH?
This brings us to the question: Are there any areas in which Bing offers a Search experience superior to that of Google?

In my limited experience, there are a few.

For instance, Bing offers conversion to bitcoin, though Google doesn’t.

Not sure how relevant it is, but given the popularity graph of bitcoin, I’m guessing Google may soon offer the service.

Versus

Anything else? Sure, I noticed that when you search for books, Bing offers a superior experience. For one, it’s possible in Bing to return a results page without the presence of Amazon.com.

I’ve not seen this happen in Google.

Also, I noticed that Bing always picks up the average reader rating of a book from Amazon.com and all other booksellers in the results page.

But I noticed that Google doesn’t pick up the average reader ratings from Amazon.com, though it may do so from other booksellers:

Are we done? Not yet. I was merely trying to highlight that there are some areas in which Bing Search results could be superior. Let’s continue our research some more in the next post.

e.o.m.

Click is an interesting book written by Bill Tancer, search whiz at website traffic monitoring firm Experian Hitwise. The book came out a few years ago, and parts of it already look dated considering the ever changing nature of the online world.
But timeless observations of human behaviour online remain. Like the New Year resolutions people make to improve their health, diets, and lifestyle. "For a brief period of time," Tancer says, "four days at the beginning of the New Year to be exact, there is a surge in weight loss and fitness interest." 
According to him, "The dieting industry in the US is a $40-billion-a-year-business, a combination of diet programs, weight loss clinics, books and other self-help materials. A good portion of that business is earned during the first few days of the New Year, as we all come to terms with our resolve to change..."
Smoking cessation related search queries are another New Year special in the US. So are queries for 'wedding dresses' and 'pregnancy', not to forget searches for 'prom dresses'.
And where does Tancer get all this data? This bit of information is provided in the book's introduction itself. It appears that Hitwise captures data in the US, UK, Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, and New Zealand. The US sample alone contains the usage behaviour of more than 10 million internet users, collected from both ISPs (internet service providers) as well as opt-in panels (probably an euphemism for users who voluntarily contribute their own usage data to Hitwise in return for goodies). He claims that all the data are anonymized and aggregated to prevent identification of individual users.
Seasonal patterns in searches are not restricted to select themes like health and fitness alone. Tancer has some interesting trivia on all manner of searches. More about them at a later time.