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Microsoft Bing Search Launches Early Preview

An anonymous reader writes to mention that Microsoft has rolled out a preview version of their Bing Search site earlier than expected. Microsoft's hope at putting a dent in Google's ubiquitous search presence, Bing has several new features including Bing Cashback, Bing Video, and Bing xRank. "Bing Video is really great because of the new thumbnail video feature. Try searching for E3 at Bing Video and you'll quickly see how it works. Simply hover over a video and it starts playing instantly. This is fantastic from the consumer's point of view but what about the publisher? It's almost like Microsoft is stepping on their toes by deploying video search in this manner. Would a user still click on to the site if they can watch the whole video from within the search results? Fair use definitely comes into mind here. Perhaps there should be a 30second limitation on the 'thumbnail preview?'"

310 comments

  1. Weird... by FredFredrickson · · Score: 5, Interesting

    What's interesting, for me, about other search engines and their "usability" is the fact that my eyes are trained to parse google results. Google search results look official and informative. I can't use Yahoo or MSN (or Bing for this matter) because their search results look sterile.

    Sometimes it's the lack of information- as little as giving me the page size (7kb). Sometimes it's the margins. Bing has a left margin. Google doesn't.

    I'm not saying that these differences make a BAD difference, except this: Internet users learn quickly about scams. The first time I accidentally clicked on those fake search results on an ad-search mis-direction page, I learned to pick up on these differences quickly.

    In fact, it's subtle, but you can usually tell when a computer has an infection that hijacks your google results- because they don't look right (older infections changed the results, new ones redirect REAL results.. but that's a different conversation).

    The point is- my mouse won't go near, let alone click, on things that I think are tricks or advertisements. For some reason, I trust google a lot. So much that my eyes are trained to see it's results and disregard others. I'm reluctant to click on bing results.

    I encourage slashdot users to try bing out, and tell me it doesn't look foreign to you! Tell me you don't feel weird clicking it's results! The internet trains you quickly that you are to embrace familiarity, because you will be quickly punished for not doing so.

    --
    Belief? Hope? Preference?The Existential Vortex
    1. Re:Weird... by mccalli · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I encourage slashdot users to try bing out, and tell me it doesn't look foreign to you! Tell me you don't feel weird clicking it's results! The internet trains you quickly that you are to embrace familiarity, because you will be quickly punished for not doing so.

      I understand what you're saying, but I have a different perspective. Yes, the results page looks different to me but in fact that has meant I've paid more attention to it. I've been trying this out every so often and it's looking promising. Wish they'd get rid of the picture from the front page, but other than that I think I'm going to stick with this for a while. Its "Pages from the UK only" thing (insert your country here...) seems much more accurate than google.co.uk's, for instance. I might be imagining it, but it seems that way to me so far.

      My current homepage is google.co.uk. I'm going to set bing.com as my homepage for a week to see how I get on with it - so far it's found things that Google didn't and missed a whole load of Google-oriented spam sites, so looking promising at first glance. I'll see how it truly is after a longer term test.

      Cheers,
      Ian

    2. Re:Weird... by BenFenner · · Score: 1

      I never jumped on the Google bandwagon because Altavista was always good enough for me.

      The results look almost identical to Altavista results.

      No paradigm shift for me.

    3. Re:Weird... by rsborg · · Score: 2, Insightful

      What's interesting, for me, about other search engines and their "usability" is the fact that my eyes are trained to parse google results. Google search results look official and informative. I can't use Yahoo or MSN (or Bing for this matter) because their search results look sterile.

      I just tried Bing (Did Chandler approve of this?) and it does look like Google, with the exception of the left border as you state (and that weird mouseover line-with-a-dot on the right hand side)

      Microsoft really did embrace (phase 1 of embrace, extend, extinguish) Google's format here... The same size font on result headings, the url (without the protocol identifier, in green) and even the "cached" link. And I don't think it looks bad, since many sites basically embed google site-search within their frame, as a quick and easy way of searching their site, and the results look similar to Bing.

      That said, it does say a lot that Bing UI look just like Google's search UI embedded/framed within Bing's page... it isn't bad or good, but it does show that MSFT realizes they are NOT the big fish in the pond here, and that they are going for a low-profile look-alike entry so people aren't too scared off.

      --
      Make sure everyone's vote counts: Verified Voting
    4. Re:Weird... by eldavojohn · · Score: 3, Insightful

      so far it's found things that Google didn't and missed a whole load of Google-oriented spam sites

      Until the spammers note that Bing's marketshare is big enough to set their sights on. It's the whole exploits are concentrated on the most popular software out there paradigm again.

      I do like some aspects (video included) of this though. I find the shopping to be about as good as Google's, nothing special. Could definitely do without the noisy background, though. I crave simplicity!

      --
      My work here is dung.
    5. Re:Weird... by larry+bagina · · Score: 1

      I don't feel weird clicking it's results.

      --
      Do you even lift?

      These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.

    6. Re:Weird... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How do you click it is?

    7. Re:Weird... by mccalli · · Score: 1

      "so far it's found things that Google didn't and missed a whole load of Google-oriented spam sites"

      Until the spammers note that Bing's marketshare is big enough to set their sights on. It's the whole exploits are concentrated on the most popular software out there paradigm again.


      Oh yes, I completely agree. It took a while for Google to become so spam-infested though, so hopefully we get a reasonable break in the meantime.

      I do like some aspects (video included) of this though. I find the shopping to be about as good as Google's, nothing special. Could definitely do without the noisy background, though. I crave simplicity!

      Indeed. Is actually the one thing putting me off making it my homepage, but I'm going to do it just to give things a try. Have been less satisfied with Google of late - not necessarily their fault as such, but there's so much targeting of them that's it's getting harder to sort wheat from chaff.

      Cheers,
      Ian

    8. Re:Weird... by Saint+Stephen · · Score: 1

      They look pretty similar to me. I know what you are talking about, but Bing does a pretty good job of mimicking Google.

      I did the "cheeseburger" test on it - if on Google, I search for Cheeseburger and the first page of links are all people trying to get me to buy cheeseburgers, I know Google's evilling up the results. If on the other hand I get all kinds of cool interesting things about cheeseburgers, I know I'm getting the "truth."

      The result sets look almost the same to me and the output is bland enough. The margin and images don't bug me.

    9. Re:Weird... by pornserver · · Score: 1

      The page loads quickly, they have a nice little side thing that gives you more info on the page. Looks fine. Definitely will use this with google search.

    10. Re:Weird... by Jake+Griffin · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Some of the things I use quite a bit on google search are the calculator feature, as well as just asking a basic trivia question that comes up while I'm browsing. Both such examples fail on bing. "1+1=?" returned a bunch of nonsense, which is expected because bing doesn't have a calculator, but "How tall is Steve Nash?" returned his stats in the first result with a picture, which is nice, but it is not his height. You have to look to the third result to see how tall he is. Google on the other hand returns this as the first result: Steve Nash â" Height: 6 FT 3 in. Very simple, quick answer. This is the reason I will stick with Google for the time being.

      --
      SIG FAULT: Post index out of bounds.
    11. Re:Weird... by Jake+Griffin · · Score: 1

      Steve Nash â" Height: 6 FT 3 in.

      That was supposed to read: Steve Nash -- Height: 6 FT 3 in.

      --
      SIG FAULT: Post index out of bounds.
    12. Re:Weird... by brian0918 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      If you feel at risk clicking on things, then certainly Bing's mini preview window should make you feel even more safe, not less. With that said, I'll probably be sticking with Google.

    13. Re:Weird... by causality · · Score: 2, Interesting

      "so far it's found things that Google didn't and missed a whole load of Google-oriented spam sites" Until the spammers note that Bing's marketshare is big enough to set their sights on. It's the whole exploits are concentrated on the most popular software out there paradigm again. Oh yes, I completely agree. It took a while for Google to become so spam-infested though, so hopefully we get a reasonable break in the meantime. I do like some aspects (video included) of this though. I find the shopping to be about as good as Google's, nothing special. Could definitely do without the noisy background, though. I crave simplicity! Indeed. Is actually the one thing putting me off making it my homepage, but I'm going to do it just to give things a try. Have been less satisfied with Google of late - not necessarily their fault as such, but there's so much targeting of them that's it's getting harder to sort wheat from chaff. Cheers, Ian

      Maybe the best defense against the spammer is multiple successful search engines owned and operated by different companies. In other words, I don't like the idea of a Google monoculture any more than I like the Windows monoculture and the instant widespread success of malware that it enables. With spammers and others who want to "game" the search engines, it seems to me that the same principle applies.

      --
      It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. - Einstein
    14. Re:Weird... by Mprx · · Score: 1

      The left border definitely gives it a spammy feel. If I came across a Bing results page unexpectedly I'd probably mistake it for a link farm and immediately close it by mouse gesture without even reading anything. Would take less than a second.

    15. Re:Weird... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "The point is- my mouse won't go near, let alone click, on things that I think are tricks or advertisements."

      Sometimes I'm the opposite, it's been so long since I've had any malware I forget what it's like. Maybe I should use my XP partition more huh? It'd cure that feeling without me trying to force it manually.

    16. Re:Weird... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      sterile? the look the same

    17. Re:Weird... by Dishevel · · Score: 2, Funny

      How do you click it is?

      That depends on what the definition of "is" is. :)

      --
      Why is it so hard to only have politicians for a few years, then have them go away?
    18. Re:Weird... by mrdoogee · · Score: 2, Insightful

      My take on it is this: If it defeats the SEO bullcrap that gums up the first 2-3 pages of most Google results, then I think it will be a useful tool to me.

      SEO bullcrap= When I search for HP 4600 troubleshooting, I am not searching for:
       

      "Tired of troubleshooting your old HP 4600? Come to CrazyJimbosPrinters.com and replace that HP 4600 and stop troubleshooting! HP HEWLETTPACKARD HP PRINTER 4600 4500 3500 2840 PRINTER LASERJET

      I shouldn't have to make a "-$NOUN" string a mile long just to find pertinent information. If Bing cuts out some of this fat, then they have a new user.

    19. Re:Weird... by X0563511 · · Score: 5, Informative

      Slashdot: Bringing the AJAX of the "future" with the encodings of the early 90's.

      --
      For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
    20. Re:Weird... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      One thing I really, really hate about Bing: Gray on gray. They obviously did not design this for the contrast challenged.

    21. Re:Weird... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      Is actually the one thing putting me off making it my homepage

      Add these to your adblock rules:

      |http://www.bing.com/fd/hpk2/*
      bing.com#DIV(class=sb_adsN)
      bing.com#DIV(class=sb_adsW)

    22. Re:Weird... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Bing does have a calculator. Use a real browser or put your glasses back on. They've copied...err innovated a lot of the google stuff "What is the time in insert country", Tracking UPS numbers..I just cannot stand the frontpage of bing though. The only Bing I knew of was/is Carmella Bing and it's going to stay that way for now.

    23. Re:Weird... by Jake+Griffin · · Score: 1

      My mistake about the calculator. It just didn't recognize "1+1=?" or "5kg = ?g" or similar queries, which google does.

      --
      SIG FAULT: Post index out of bounds.
    24. Re:Weird... by Brian+Gordon · · Score: 1

      I think the Bing results page looks like one of those fake domain-parked search result pages. I saw it on a few customers' machines today and honestly thought that it was some new malware.

    25. Re:Weird... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I agree, Bing has background images... why?!

    26. Re:Weird... by goatpunch · · Score: 1

      Google doesn't recognise "1+1=?" but "5kg = ?g" does work. I didn't notice this as I've always used "5kg in g" for unit conversions on Google.

      Bing understands "5 kg in lb" but is picky about missing out the space after the number and so fails with: "5kg in lb" (Google worked with both). Bing also doesn't like "5 kg in g", but understands OK if you use the whole word: "5 kg in grams".

      These sort of little things make it hard to switch from Google, it just tends to work the way I except it to.

    27. Re:Weird... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      i just installed a userscript for grease monkey from userscripts.org (just search for bing) and it moves the left margin to the right side of the screen... i am slightly happier now, but i still prefer google

    28. Re:Weird... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you searched bing for 1+1 instead of 1+1=? you would be given 2. (google also doesn't know what to do with 1+1=?) That said if you searched for "speed of light / cos(2)" bing won't cut it and google returns -720,400,666 m / s

    29. Re:Weird... by f0dder · · Score: 1
      >>because bing doesn't have a calculator

      for simple calculation omit the =

    30. Re:Weird... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Spoken like a true user who didn't want to adopt from green-screen to mouse-driven GUI.

    31. Re:Weird... by Stormwatch · · Score: 1

      Google doesn't recognise "1+1=?"

      It recognizes 1+1.

    32. Re:Weird... by goatpunch · · Score: 1

      Right... but the parent post specifically said that Google could recognise expressions of the form "1+1=?" and Bing couldn't. Both can understand "1+1".

    33. Re:Weird... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't know if this would stop me from using another search engine, if the results are good... but...
                You're absolutely right, and there's a reason for you finding the Google results so nice to use -- I read an article years back that Google spent LOTS of time, money, and effort, basically making small changes to the results pages, and using polls to see which people preferred... margin tweaks, font tweaks, adding and removing little bits of info.. I'm sure they still are. They might not necessarily know WHY people prefer one version over another, but the stats don't lie, and google presumably goes with it.

    34. Re:Weird... by OrigamiMarie · · Score: 1

      I don't trust that they are telling me which ones are paid advertisements and which ones are normal search results. I never click the paid ads at the top of the list on Google, because I don't actually trust any ad on the internet (we all know how easy it is to buy an ad for nefarious purposes -- it's harder to get that kind of link-love and then turn bad). So Bing doesn't tell me the cut-off line between {ad, potentially worrying, not what the crowd chose} and {chosen by link love, only as dangerous as average -- maybe a little less}.

      The little previews are kind of cute, and a reasonably neat idea. I like that they don't go for the mini-page-rendering, because those (a) are too heavy and (b) don't actually tell you anything.

    35. Re:Weird... by BrokenHalo · · Score: 3, Funny

      It recognizes 1+1.

      Yes, and it comes up with the wrong answer. Everybody knows that 1 + 1 = 10.

    36. Re:Weird... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I wanted to try this out myself, so i also searched "1+1=" and there is no calculation as the result, BUT if you search "1+1" without the '=' then it works and returns "1+1 = 2"

    37. Re:Weird... by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 1

      Microsoft really did embrace (phase 1 of embrace, extend, extinguish) Google's format here... The same size font on result headings, the url (without the protocol identifier, in green) and even the "cached" link.

      It's not just Bing - if you look around, most search engines these days look quite similar. It shows that Google has really set the standard when it comes to web search UI. You can add the fancy stuff, but basic elements must be that exact way, down to the color of the links and their positioning - else a casual user will get confused and just go away.

    38. Re:Weird... by McDutchie · · Score: 1

      That's interesting, I had the exact opposite feeling. Seems to me that Bing blatantly stole Google's layout: search results, preferences page, cache header are all virtually identical (except for that left margin). But on second thought, I can actually see how copying Google except for a few details makes them seem like a fake Google. They probably would have felt less spammy/fraudulent if they had actually made a whole new layout of their own.

    39. Re:Weird... by tompeach · · Score: 1

      I was trying to think of some sensible tests to compare the search.

      When I search for "times" Google returns timesonline.co.uk first and Bing returns:
      1. www.queertimes.ch
      2. www.hemptimes.ch
      3. www.greaterzuricharea.ch

      The results are obviously tailored to my location (Switzerland) but I would expect to have to enter a more specific search for a more obscure / niche website.

      A search for "beeb" returns the BBC first in Google whereas Bing returns a Swedish furniture store as number 1.

      I'll try Bing for a week but it seems to me Google still has the better search.

    40. Re:Weird... by TheRaven64 · · Score: 1

      One of the nicest things about the Google calculator is that it knows a lot of symbolic constants and units. You can google for '12g * c^2' and it will give you a result in Joules. I tried a few things like this in bing, but none of them worked.

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
    41. Re:Weird... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The UK version is just a rebrand of Live. If you change your country to US (top right) you get many more search features.

    42. Re:Weird... by Eivind+Eklund · · Score: 1

      I just tried your query, and didn't get any result similar to that. All results on the front page seemed to be genuine troubleshooting pages.

      Eivind.

      --
      Doubting the existence of evolution is like doubting the existence of China: It just shows that you're uninformed.
    43. Re:Weird... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Why would you say 1+1=?, since you are quantifying or asking a question that has to convert into units, 1+1 would be enough. May google didn't want to program things for morons and therefore left out the ?

    44. Re:Weird... by Jake+Griffin · · Score: 1

      I guess I was mistaken again :) But my point still stands. Google understands more flexible commands than Bing, as you explained in your post. So I will continue to have Google as my homepage rather than Bing. Plus, the personalized Google homepage helps me keep up on /. and other sites as well as my email, etc.

      --
      SIG FAULT: Post index out of bounds.
    45. Re:Weird... by Jake+Griffin · · Score: 1

      See my reply to the FIRST post that countered my calculator point. I was mistaken about the calculator in Bing, but Google's calculator is still WAY more flexible...

      --
      SIG FAULT: Post index out of bounds.
    46. Re:Weird... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you really hate the background image, click "Help" followed by "Give me the plain background". As long as you allow cookies, the setting will be sticky and you won't see the images again.

      Personally, I think the pictures are nice, and occasionally I follow one of the hotspots and learn something interesting.

    47. Re:Weird... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Google's calculator instant answer is more flexible than Bing's, but Bing's gets some stuff that Google doesn't, too. Try "calories in squirrel" for instance. Also, both do "weather in new york" successfully, but Bing has more detail and I like the presentation better (though that's certainly a matter of taste).

    48. Re:Weird... by Ginger+Unicorn · · Score: 1

      according to ballmer, bing is named after chandler bing

      --
      (1.21 gigawatts) / (88 miles per hour) = 30 757 874 newtons
  2. And Slashdot couldn't even link to it? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I guess I'll just have to Google it.

    1. Re:And Slashdot couldn't even link to it? by Yvan256 · · Score: 4, Funny

      Nope, this is a Microsoft product. You have to fucking Google it.

    2. Re:And Slashdot couldn't even link to it? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      http://www.bing.com/search?q=bing+is+shit&go=&form=QBLH&filt=all

      fourth link - I think they've got that covered

    3. Re:And Slashdot couldn't even link to it? by neoform · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I wonder how Bing stands up against Google..

      http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3604/3585051300_d23a37a32e_o.png

      --
      MABASPLOOM!
    4. Re:And Slashdot couldn't even link to it? by Miladinoski · · Score: 1

      Mod parent up! That picture is awesome!

      --
      [insert lame sig here]
    5. Re:And Slashdot couldn't even link to it? by Iphtashu+Fitz · · Score: 4, Insightful

      That's one reason why I never liked MSN Live and other MS search products. They're obviously very biased towards Microsoft products. Google, if anything, is biased towards open source & their other offerings like gmail, etc. but their search results aren't so blatantly biased that way. I purposely don't want to use a search engine run by a corporation with a wide range of products and services like MS because it's so easy for them to game the results to suit their needs. That's why I stick with Google for most of my searching and venture out to others like ask.com, yahoo.com, etc. when I want to try something different. Unless MS can demonstrate that their searches aren't biased towards their products & services then I'll continue to avoid using them.

    6. Re:And Slashdot couldn't even link to it? by diegocgteleline.es · · Score: 1

      It's also very funny that in the spanish version of bing, searching for some terms shows the Encarta search page for that term as the first real link (after the ads), and Wikipedia in second place.

    7. Re:And Slashdot couldn't even link to it? by truthsearch · · Score: 1

      To be fair, people are probably searching for Microsoft products a lot more on Microsoft's sites (proportionately). So an autocomplete text box could reasonably and accurately be Microsoft biased.

    8. Re:And Slashdot couldn't even link to it? by encoderer · · Score: 1

      Ok, but, if you search the "Linux Windows" suggestion, the very first result is a very long, well cited, and fair comparison of linux v windows...
      http://www.michaelhorowitz.com/Linux.vs.Windows.html

    9. Re:And Slashdot couldn't even link to it? by Yvan256 · · Score: 1

      And then you get people who think Linux was made by Microsoft, just like there is people who think Microsoft owns Apple just because they had some shares a few decades ago.

    10. Re:And Slashdot couldn't even link to it? by mugnyte · · Score: 3, Insightful

      This bias, built from MS's search seeing the world as highly MS-leaning from simply their own adherents using their products more, is somewhat self-defeating.

        For popularity-driven ranks, the wider the audience and usage, the better the full audience will be able to make use of the statistics it employs. If MS's employees, contractors, proponents, vendors, etc are the primary users for the tool before a general web world, the stats will be be slanted towards MS's offerings, as you allude.

        I would expect for a release as important as this to the MS portfolio, I would expect them to reset the statistics after the initial rollout, or even sub-sample the IP's, selecting for diversity, for the stats to fight bias. Without this, I can only wait until another set of "MS is just pushing more MS" posts across the blogosphere.

        Then again, perhaps a healthy dose of bing-bombing (aka google-bombing) the site will re-skew it to those who fight such battles.

    11. Re:And Slashdot couldn't even link to it? by stefanlasiewski · · Score: 1

      Do you really think that a search for "Linux Windows" is more common then searches like "Linux download" "Linux command" and "Linux distro"?

      The resulting webpages for a search for "Linux Windows" seem to be irrelevant and low quality (blog posts and the like), and the resulting webpages for a search of "Linux distro" seem much more relevant.

      --
      "Can of worms? The can is open... the worms are everywhere."
    12. Re:And Slashdot couldn't even link to it? by MattXBlack · · Score: 1
      Try searching for 'windows'. These were the sponsored links I got at the top of the page:

      # Windows at Everest - www.everest.co.uk Warm, secure & draught-free windows, made to measure for your home. # Anglian Windows VAT Free - www.anglianhome.co.uk/windows Pick & Mix Home Improvements Sale. Which 3 savings will you choose? # Online Window Quotes - www.windowquotes.org 70% Discounts on Fitted Windows. Get up to 3 Free Quotes Online Now!

      You'd think they'd at least buy their own keywords.

    13. Re:And Slashdot couldn't even link to it? by jeanph01 · · Score: 1

      Very interesting...and a little freaky too. Microsoft will never change.

    14. Re:And Slashdot couldn't even link to it? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I spent 10 full seconds on Bing and I don't plan an extra session in the near future. I'm using mainly Google these days and a lot of my searches are *NIX daily admin related. I typed "linux" in Bling and the first 3 autocompletion hits were "linux windows" , "linux microsoft" and "linux vista ". Don't think I have the drive to find the good parts of it, even if I'll miss some features I believe it's safe for me to filter it as a brainwashing tool and forget about it.
             

    15. Re:And Slashdot couldn't even link to it? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Maybe Linux download is more common, but otherwise, yes, I expect Linux Windows is far more common than the other searches you mentioned. A lot of people will be looking for comparative analysis. If you know what distro means, then I think you're highly likely to also know the URL (or have bookmarked) of the site you're trying to find.

    16. Re:And Slashdot couldn't even link to it? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Despite what slashdotters think, not every search on the web is about software and Linux. Bing will succeed or fail based on the quality of results of other 99.999999% of searches on the web.

    17. Re:And Slashdot couldn't even link to it? by Zonnald · · Score: 1

      What is Linux Mint? Is this the most popular best distro of Linux?

    18. Re:And Slashdot couldn't even link to it? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well at least the old search of "How to switch from Windows to Linux" doesn't give you 2-3 links at the top to Microsoft's own "Get the Facts" campaign (it used to in MSN).

    19. Re:And Slashdot couldn't even link to it? by vegiVamp · · Score: 1

      http://www.googlefight.com/index.php?lang=en_GB&word1=Google&word2=Bing should answer your question.

      --
      What a depressingly stupid machine.
    20. Re:And Slashdot couldn't even link to it? by stuntpope · · Score: 1

      I don't agree. Someone who opts to use Bing, for whatever reason (such as it being the default search site in the IE search toolbar) isn't thinking they are searching on a Microsoft site. They think they are on a search engine site. When I use Google for search, I don't think I'm on a Google site, related to the Google corporation.

      Obviously, if I search on microsoft.com or msdn.com, I expect Microsoft-related results. But the search engine is supposed to be a search of the whole Internet, unrelated to the company providing the search engine.

      Having autocomplete be biased towards nonsensical "hints" that promote their own products is dishonest.

      To be fair, a Google search for 'android' will give hints all relating to Google Android, and the first several search results are about Google Android, not robots. But a Google search for Windows or Microsoft doesn't attempt to shanghai you off to something related to Google, or GNU, or Linux, etc.

    21. Re:And Slashdot couldn't even link to it? by Iphtashu+Fitz · · Score: 1

      OK, here are some other ways MS could skew results in their favor:

      Suppose somebody wants to search for DVR's. What's to prevent MS from skewing results so that all the top searches are for Windows Media Center products, add-in cards for Windows that provide DVR functionality, etc. and bury results that mention TiVo and other DVR's that don't require Windows? I know people who aren't very computer savvy and trust whatever "the internet" returns for search results. They could easily be swayed by the large number of search results Windows Media Center, especially if things like TiVo aren't mentioned until the third or fourth page of search results.

      Suppose somebody is searching for new car reviews, and the Bing results favor reviews of cars that contain Microsoft's "Sync" technology. If you get lots of search results glorifying the earth-shattering features of Sync it could help to sway a car buyers decision.

      Or somebody who isn't very technologically savvy is searching for information on video games in order to buy a gift for a child and the first few pages of results are all XBox related links? Well, gee, the XBox must be the only way to go!

      Pick any technology where Microsoft has ANY sort of presence and the search results from their engine come into question. You can find their software embedded in everything from phones to DVR's & TV's (Samsung & MS are building an XBox/HDTV hybrid) to automobiles to home automation. Microsoft also has invested in over 100 other companies including websites like WebMD & Facebook, companies like Ticketmaster & Hitachi, etc. Who's to say that the results you get from Bing don't artificially promote these companies and technologies because MS has a stake in them?

      Most of Google's acquisitions & investments apply specifically to improving their search products. They've acquired and/or invested in companies that do online advertising, map analysis, social networking, etc. They're technologies that are mainly used in their underlying products and not consumer facing products that you're likely to see pop up in search results. Microsoft, on the other hand, has a huge portfolio of consumer facing products that they have a vested interest in selling to consumers. Gaming search engine results is just one more method they could take in promoting those products.

    22. Re:And Slashdot couldn't even link to it? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      What's to prevent MS from skewing results so that...

      How about the fact that they're competing against a search engine that doesn't do this, and that is already so favoured by pretty much everyone in the web-surfing world that their company name has even become a verb in internet lingo to describe the very act of searching the web.

      Producing crappy results is not a good way to compete.

    23. Re:And Slashdot couldn't even link to it? by Iphtashu+Fitz · · Score: 1

      I didn't say "crappy results". I'm simply referring to skewed results in the favor of Microsoft, its products, and it's partners & their products.

    24. Re:And Slashdot couldn't even link to it? by HermMunster · · Score: 1

      Microsoft has demonstrated a bias in the past. They are skewering in their favor. I did a search for Linux vs Microsoft and it comes up with Microsoft's own website first which is full of almost blatant outright lies about the position and performance of Linux.

      --
      You can lead a man with reason but you can't make him think.
    25. Re:And Slashdot couldn't even link to it? by mugnyte · · Score: 1

      This isn't about just Linux/software. The essence of the argument is: If MS's market uses MS's search engine the most, and results are popularity or search-popularity weighted, then MS's own engine will look somewhat conceited.

        I'm merely suggesting they weigh their search statistics according to a flat distribution, instead of a normal distribution based on their own captured user groups.

        This is probably relevant only in the auto-complete section, which changes faster than the general search index. Just try a few bing vs. google auto-complete searches and notice the differences:

      "windows 7" on bing
              windows 7
              windows 7.0
              windows 7.1
              windows 7.5
              windows 7 download
      [it's likely that bing users are already windows 7 users and are looking for more detail by searching on a sub-version]

      "windows 7" on google
              windows 7 beta
              windows 7 download
              windows 7 release date
              windows 7 review
      [google users are more of a general audience and examining windows 7 as a non-user]

      This issue isn't huge, but it will affect the approachability of Bing, IMO.

  3. I'll be the first never to say... by MoonFacedAssassin · · Score: 4, Funny

    just go Bing it!

    --
    I am a meat popsicle.
    1. Re:I'll be the first never to say... by qoncept · · Score: 2, Funny

      Ya betta Bing it!

      --
      Whale
    2. Re:I'll be the first never to say... by Cro+Magnon · · Score: 0

      Well, I binged your mama!

      --
      Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
    3. Re:I'll be the first never to say... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You binged her? Does that require special equipment? (A funnel comes to mind..)

    4. Re:I'll be the first never to say... by castorvx · · Score: 1

      I think your signature makes that statement have more meaning than you want.

    5. Re:I'll be the first never to say... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      BaddaBing!

    6. Re:I'll be the first never to say... by Rhabarber · · Score: 1

      Yea, did it and clicked the sponsored link.
      I wonder how much $$ flows from MS to Google per click.

      I guess I'll have to repeat ;)

    7. Re:I'll be the first never to say... by Dishevel · · Score: 1

      No. I did. And here is my proof.

      --
      Why is it so hard to only have politicians for a few years, then have them go away?
    8. Re:I'll be the first never to say... by Brad1138 · · Score: 1

      just go Bing it!

      Is that Chandler Bing or Bing Crosby?

      --
      If you could reason with religious people, there would be no religious people
    9. Re:I'll be the first never to say... by MrMunkey · · Score: 1

      I'm going to Bing myself.

    10. Re:I'll be the first never to say... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      > just go Bing it

      While you do that, i'm going to go Wolfram Alpha it.

    11. Re:I'll be the first never to say... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      yet better:
      Billy, Bing me up!

  4. Meh by thetoadwarrior · · Score: 5, Informative

    It's google with a background image, a flashy video preview and a not quite right page layout.

    1. Re:Meh by smallshot · · Score: 1

      I thought the same thing. Layout and all is googleish.

      At least they did one thing right... they used Adobe Flash instead Microsoft Silverlight. I may be forced to work in windows, but I refuse to install silverlight just to go to a microsoft website that has a video on it.

    2. Re:Meh by Locke2005 · · Score: 1

      ...not quite right page layout. It is your own fault; shame on you for using Firefox instead of IE!

      --
      I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
    3. Re:Meh by mu22le · · Score: 1

      you wish it was google

      take a look at this

      http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3604/3585051300_d23a37a32e_o.png

    4. Re:Meh by RichardJenkins · · Score: 1

      Even the colours of the search results are identical, it's hilarious. Looking forward to June 21st when they spell out 'Bing' with little pictures related to summer.

    5. Re:Meh by jwhitener · · Score: 1

      Appearance-wise it is very google-like. Spend some time searching though and you can quickly see bias.....

      I just spent some time doing very specific technical searches for info about aspects of solaris. I kept getting msdn results in the top 5....

    6. Re:Meh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It is nice video.
      Damion
      find lawyer

  5. Microsoft Bing Search Launches Early Preview, by Capt.DrumkenBum · · Score: 1

    and no one uses it after a quick burst right after it is announced.

    --
    If I were God, wouldn't I protect my churches from acts of me?
    1. Re:Microsoft Bing Search Launches Early Preview, by CRCulver · · Score: 1

      At least with startups like Cuil those quick bursts let devs install an air hockey table and beanbags in their office, or even go through lots of blow and hookers, and feel the rush of knowing your going to be the next Google (before it all comes crashing down, of course). Meanwhile, over at Microsoft the launch of a new technology isn't changing anyone's lives.

    2. Re:Microsoft Bing Search Launches Early Preview, by Chris+Burke · · Score: 1

      I'm sure I'll be using it periodically for years, just to make jokes about how I'm using the search engine that goes 'Bing'.

      --

      The enemies of Democracy are
  6. To disable tracking by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Add www.bing.com/fd/ls/* to your filters.

    1. Re:To disable tracking by dzfoo · · Score: 1

      Or use NoScript. Searches just fine without JavaScript.

              -dZ.

      --
      Carol vs. Ghost
      ...Can you save Christmas?
  7. Let's watch thumbnails! by drunken_boxer777 · · Score: 1

    While it might be useful to watch video thumbnails to quickly find something, I don't think I'd actually watch entire videos in thumbnail mode. There is a reason my monitor is larger than EGA and I no longer use a 56.6 kb modem. Why watch thumbnails?

  8. bing is for porn by Trivial_Zeros · · Score: 5, Informative

    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandtechnology/technology/5423736/Microsofts-Bing-under-fire-for-porn-video-access.html This might be how Bing will become popular - using Bing video to bypass porn filters!

    1. Re:bing is for porn by buttfscking · · Score: 0

      I'm not going to lie...my first search was for images of boobs.

    2. Re:bing is for porn by hawkingradiation · · Score: 1

      They told them don't you ever search around here Your not as good as google you'd better disappear The porn is in their eyes And the search results aren't really clear So Bing it! Just Bing it! U'd better run you'd better do what ur told Ur search results won't satisfy a two year old But u wanna be google Better do what you can So Bing it! Just Bing it! Showin' how funky, Strong is your search It doesn't matter if your popular or not Just Bing it! Bing it! No one wants to be defeated ...

      --
      Society use your Sciences
    3. Re:bing is for porn by Scroatzilla · · Score: 1

      "Why didn't you just Google it?"

      "To be honest with you, I was too busy Binging off!"

  9. Yah. Just find the stuff I want you to find by Colin+Smith · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Clicking or hovering over a video is inane crap. Do the hard stuff please, it involves some rather advanced mathematics and shit load of computers, not flash/javascript.

    Google are btw getting worse at finding the stuff I need, so there's an opening there.

     

    --
    Deleted
    1. Re:Yah. Just find the stuff I want you to find by edalytical · · Score: 1

      Google are btw getting worse at finding the stuff I need, so there's an opening there.

      I've noticed this too. Google search is broken, it ranks link farms, retailers, knockoff sites, unofficial mailing list archives (with AdSense ads), and worst of all 3xp3rts-xchng way to high for my liking.

      --
      Win a signed Stephen Carpenter ESP Guitar from the Deftones: http://def-tag.com/?r=0008781
    2. Re:Yah. Just find the stuff I want you to find by ChefInnocent · · Score: 1

      Experts Exchange used to be good for something before they were a pay site. Because we spent years giving them answers, they have a great deal of useful information on their site. It's hard to blame Google for showing Experts-Exchange when asking a technical question.

      As for AdSense, Google is a business and will show the results for the highest bidder. At least, we know which links are paid for. With respect to the link farms, retailers, and knockoff sites, Google could definitely do a better job. Microsoft will not likely be the one to do that.

  10. Yeah but.... by Utopia+Tree · · Score: 5, Funny

    www.BingIsNotGoogle.com

    1. Re:Yeah but.... by eldavojohn · · Score: 1

      www.BingIsNotGoogle.com

      I also found Asus' http://itsbetterwithgoogle.com/ to be very convincing.

      --
      My work here is dung.
    2. Re:Yeah but.... by jamesmcm · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Microsoft has been using a lot of recursive, GNU-style acronyms recently like XNA - XNA's Not Acronymed and now Bing - Bing Is Not Google.

      Maybe they think this is why everyone is using GNU now? :P

    3. Re:Yeah but.... by Hurricane78 · · Score: 1

      The googles, they do nothing! (Link's not working.)

      --
      Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
  11. It's nice and all by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ... But It's Not Google

  12. Google and Bing side by side.. by Wescotte · · Score: 5, Informative
    1. Re:Google and Bing side by side.. by BabyDuckHat · · Score: 1

      And that, my friend, says it all.

    2. Re:Google and Bing side by side.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      Try a side-by-side of "antitrust m", too.

    3. Re:Google and Bing side by side.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ballmer t

      or

      bill gates stea

    4. Re:Google and Bing side by side.. by Sj0 · · Score: 1

      Hey, thanks.

      I've always avoided Live search and its predecessors because they're fucking useless.

      I was wondering if they'd made this new search engine less fucking useless. Obviously they haven't.

      It's a shame they didn't learn anything with the Vista debacle -- it doesn't matter how much you spend on marketing if your product is shit. It's still shit, and unless you're selling to farmers who actually want to buy shit, you're not going to sell your shit to anyone.

      --
      It's been a long time.
    5. Re:Google and Bing side by side.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Have you tried searching for "microsoft is shit" in both?

      Google result #1: "Microsoft is shit magnet"
      Bing result #1: "Microsoft is the shit"

      What about "vista joke"

      Google's results on page 1 all discuss what a joke Vista is.
      Bing gives you jokes about vista.

      "Google useless"

      Google's results are mostly concerned with decreasing quality of google results these days
      Bings results mostly link to pages describing things as being useless, and mentioning google in them.

      I think with two word queries like these, Bing looks like it picks out a word it considers the most relevant, and returns results on that word, prioritising pages that include or reference the other. Google on the other hand seems to have a better understanding of how the words in my queries fit together and, here at least, returned results more relevant to the interest that drove me to enter those search terms in the first place.

    6. Re:Google and Bing side by side.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Bing 'microsoft sucks'

      Related searches:
              * I Hate Microsoft
              * Microsoft Rocks (???)
              * Microsuck
              * Windows Sucks
              * Apple Sucks
              * Vista Sucks
              * Linux (!!!)

  13. Huge amount of text ads by Via_Patrino · · Score: 2, Insightful

    What first impress me is the huge amount of ads in the search results. Searching for "sql server" I can only see two real results before having to scroll the page and is hard to distinguish the ads on the top of the page, from the real results.

    1. Re:Huge amount of text ads by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I tried your query. My SERP had only one ad at the top and one at the bottom. Both were labeled "Sponsored Site" and had a different background color. They were quite easy to distinguish and took up little screen real estate. (For reference: The Google SERP for the same term exact same ad at the top and another 8 on the side to boot.)

    2. Re:Huge amount of text ads by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There's one ad and that's enough to push results down so that you only see two results?

      Maybe you should upgrade that 10" monitor.

    3. Re:Huge amount of text ads by Blakey+Rat · · Score: 1

      There's only one placement at the top of the page, one placement at the bottom, and a single text ad in the right column.

      Compare to the Google search of the same term: http://www.google.com/#hl=en&q=%22sql+server%22&aq=f&oq=&aqi=g10&fp=2Inaafc1UxE

      Google has the one placement at the top of the page, virtually identical to Bing's. It has no placement at the bottom, given, but it has 8 placements in the right column.

      So Bing's total placements: 3. Google's: 9.

    4. Re:Huge amount of text ads by Fleeced · · Score: 1

      What first impress me is the huge amount of ads in the search results. Searching for "sql server" I can only see two real results before having to scroll the page and is hard to distinguish the ads on the top of the page, from the real results.

      So, no different to Google then?

      Doing a comparison in my current window, Google is indeed more compressed, but both show 8 non-ad results before I scroll down (Google is more compressed, so gets extra ads at top... and Bing seems to have a "Best match" category in addition to ads). Searching for something more commercially competitive (like "web hosting") produces more ads (for both engines), but again, I can see 8 not ads on each.

      That said, it will take some work to oust Google as #1 search engine... competition can't hurt though

    5. Re:Huge amount of text ads by Flyskippy1 · · Score: 1

      Um... what advertisements? There are no advertisements on that page that I see. (I even turned off my ad-blocker to be sure I wasn't missing any.)

  14. My Firefox 3 Crashes on Bing Video Mouseover by bjo987 · · Score: 1

    Video mouseover is kinda cool in bing, until it spits some action script error at you and then crashes your browser.

    1. Re:My Firefox 3 Crashes on Bing Video Mouseover by Jabrwock · · Score: 1

      Which Firefox? I'm using Ubutu 9.04 /w Firefox 3.0.10, and it works just fine.

      --
      Magic doesn't work in my presence. My power of disbelief is too strong.
    2. Re:My Firefox 3 Crashes on Bing Video Mouseover by treofan · · Score: 1

      Same here. Must have something to do with the Adobe Flash plugin? I have the latest version, too.

    3. Re:My Firefox 3 Crashes on Bing Video Mouseover by Fastolfe · · Score: 1

      Fortunately this is easier to do in HTML5 with a plain <video> tag. YouTube has a sample page done up with HTML5, complete with moving thumbnails: http://www.youtube.com/html5

    4. Re:My Firefox 3 Crashes on Bing Video Mouseover by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wow, it took me a lot longer than usual to finally see the obligatory Linux / Ubuntu reference!

  15. First impressions by Yvan256 · · Score: 3, Informative

    Ok, seriously... what's with that 80 KiB background JPEG on the homepage?

    Image search is actually nice, though I would put the filters at the top instead of the left. The results leave a bit to be desired (tried "portable mame cabinet", hoping to find something I looked at a few days ago - no luck there). Also, scrolling down loads more pictures automatically. No need to go to "page 2" for more results. That's actually nice. The size/weight info on hover is a nice touch too.

    1. Re:First impressions by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      Does the background JPEG get in the way for you? It loads asynchronously after the page is complete, so it doesn't affect responsiveness...

    2. Re:First impressions by Yvan256 · · Score: 1

      Well, I myself am connected on a 5Mbits cable modem. Not everyone has a high-speed connection, however, and that 80KB background serves no purpose on a search engine homepage.

      If anything, that particular picture would fit a travel agency website or something, not a search engine homepage.

      Also, it means a lot more bandwidth usage on the server side.

    3. Re:First impressions by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      It can be turned off if you really don't want to take the 80K hit. It has some search engine relevance in that there are hotspots in the image that link to various searches which is a nice way to explore. The image changes daily and is often topical in nature.

    4. Re:First impressions by ion.simon.c · · Score: 1

      Disable JavaScript and the image goes away.

      Actually, the site w/out JS is only slightly faster than Google over IPv6 with JS enabled.

    5. Re:First impressions by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Just because you live in a place where there's no such thing as "kilomiles" doesn't mean it's okay for kilo to mean 1024. Always has been 1000, always will be.

  16. Flashiness.. Bleugh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    We don't want lots of flashy stuff in a search engine. Just give us the simple results with no fluff.

    I gotta admit that some of the previews looked enticing (shopping/price comparison) but doesn't that start bringing Bing into other territory in competition with other review sites?

    It is the whole issue of features vs. bloat: where do you go with features that seem great, and where do you stop... because if you don't stop you start making something so clunky and unwieldy no one can use it.

    If they can make grokking the web easier I think that will be great, but knowing Microsoft there will always be that little thing wrong that just throws you off...

  17. I've "bung" a few queries by melted · · Score: 1

    And aside from the expanded snippet feature (which is pretty clever) I don't see anything new or exciting. WTF?

    1. Re:I've "bung" a few queries by Jabrwock · · Score: 1

      The video preview is nice (3 7-second clips play when you mouse over). I liked the expanded snippet too.

      --
      Magic doesn't work in my presence. My power of disbelief is too strong.
  18. its all about the data by jsnipy · · Score: 3, Insightful

    no interface means anything without the index and data to back it.

    --
    -- if you mod me down, I will become more powerful than you can possibly imagine
    1. Re:its all about the data by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      He must be prepared to be assimilated!

  19. In a word, it sucks by TheLastUser · · Score: 0, Troll

    Big surprise, the video refuses to load unless you have Windows Media Player. Despite the fact that I view wmv's all over the net just fine with mplayer, yet somehow MS can't seem to make this work. Typical. MS needs to get a clue and realize that they can't expect to gain market share in new areas if they lame out all of their products to try and reinforce their OS monopoly. They don't seem to be able to see the flip side of their reasoning, which is that loss of OS market share will be amplified in their other products rather than mitigated. Do they honestly expect to pull market share from youtube while telling users to go away until they install windows?

    1. Re:In a word, it sucks by stefanlasiewski · · Score: 1

      I'm on a Mac, and I don't have Windows Media Player. For me, the previews are played using Adobe Flash Player 10.

      --
      "Can of worms? The can is open... the worms are everywhere."
    2. Re:In a word, it sucks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm on Ubuntu 8.10 and it works fine for me - using Flash as well

    3. Re:In a word, it sucks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Big surprise, the video refuses to load unless you have Windows Media Player. Despite the fact that I view wmv's all over the net just fine with mplayer, yet somehow MS can't seem to make this work.

      Stop trying to get around the filter.

    4. Re:In a word, it sucks by therealmorris · · Score: 1

      Do you really think Microsoft would re encode every video on the internet into wmv just for this? It's flash. +5 interesting?!

    5. Re:In a word, it sucks by mrdoogee · · Score: 1

      Ditto for Mac playing it through Flash.

      I'll try it with Jaunty when I get home.

    6. Re:In a word, it sucks by Jamie's+Nightmare · · Score: 1

      First, your computer has problems. I'm using Opera on Windows and have embedded Quicktime and WMV videos purposely disabled. Guess what? The video preview play just fine, sir.

      Second, this is a video preview. You do understand the concept of a preview, right? Not only is the picture a quarter of the original size, it's only a clip that starts somewhere near the middle. So why would you still visit YouTube? To watch the other 75%.

      I'll tell you what is broken, Slashdot. Your anti-Microsoft comment received "Interesting and Insightful" moderation when in fact your comments have no basis in fact.

      --
      "When you see a unixer brainwashed beyond saving, kick him out of the door." - Xah Lee
    7. Re:In a word, it sucks by Blakey+Rat · · Score: 4, Informative

      Big surprise, the video refuses to load unless you have Windows Media Player.

      Wrong. They're using Flash, like everybody doing video on the web.

      Despite the fact that I view wmv's all over the net just fine with mplayer, yet somehow MS can't seem to make this work.

      It's your computer at fault, not Microsoft.

      MS needs to get a clue and realize that they can't expect to gain market share in new areas if they lame out all of their products to try and reinforce their OS monopoly.

      They're using Flash, you gigantic ass. It doesn't even query for the Silverlight plug-in-- Bing is *all Flash*.

      Do they honestly expect to pull market share from youtube while telling users to go away until they install windows?

      No they don't. Which is why their video previews has the same requirement YouTube has: Flash installed.

      How did your retarded posting get modded up? Christ.

  20. Nice try! by HommeDeJava · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Rather than trying to compete on general research against Google, Bing's strategy is to select the targeted queries as the search for goods and services (travels, restaurants, cars, etc). I cannot comment on the outcome but the idea is very good especially since such queries are the most likely to bring the $ dollars from advertisers. However, the trick is good but I see nothing that Google cannot ultimately counter ...

  21. You want to know something funny? by E.+Edward+Grey · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I realized just now that if some other company had started up and created a new search engine called "Bing" I would probably find it really charming. But when Microsoft does it, it just seems like The Itchy & Scratchy & Poochie Show. The human subconscious is a player-hater.

    --

    ---don't make me break out my red pen.

    1. Re:You want to know something funny? by BabyDuckHat · · Score: 1

      Worst results ever.

    2. Re:You want to know something funny? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Word. It's like how we all get super tired of the overexposure of music and celebrities--same thing with software products. Eventually I just wanted JLo to just go away and die and now I really want the same thing to happen to Beyonce/Rhianna-I just get tired of the same old thing being thrown at me. As far as products go, I wanted GM to die for making ugly shitty cars. And for the past 10 years, I've wanted microsoft to die for ugly shitty software. Also, the queen of england has to go too-but that's just because she's too damn old.

    3. Re:You want to know something funny? by warriorpostman · · Score: 1

      "Just rastify him by about 15% or so"

    4. Re:You want to know something funny? by mrdoogee · · Score: 1

      Roger Meyers Jr: The rest of you start writers thinking up a name for this funky dog; I dunno, something along the line of say... Poochie, only more proactive.
      Krusty: Yeah!
      Head Writer: So, Poochie okay with everybody?
      Other Writers: Yeah.

  22. Somebody needs to take on Google by bonch · · Score: 2, Insightful

    It may as well be Microsoft. Right now, Google has no real competition.

    1. Re:Somebody needs to take on Google by Sj0 · · Score: 1

      You know what would help competing against Google?

      A good search engine.

      Maybe Microsoft can take all that money they spend rebranding their useless shitty search engine every 2 years and build a good search engine? I don't care what they're calling MSN Messenger this week, it's a great product and I keep using it despite the constant name changes. Similarly, I don't care what they call Live Search or Bing or MSN Search or whatever they want to call it this week, it's shit and it's going to remain shit until they fix it.

      --
      It's been a long time.
    2. Re:Somebody needs to take on Google by edgr · · Score: 1

      For this reason I have changed my default search engine for the moment, to at least give bing a go. Competition is good, and if Google's monopoly continues, the technology will stagnate.

  23. Alta Vista by AliasMarlowe · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Altavista was always good enough for me

    I really liked Alta Vista also - when it supported boolean queries with the NEAR keyword. I really miss that NEAR keyword, it could transform a search so easily into something worthwhile. When Alta Vista morphed into a yet another Google-style search, I moved to Google.

    --
    Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. - Voltaire
    1. Re:Alta Vista by causality · · Score: 1

      Altavista was always good enough for me

      I really liked Alta Vista also - when it supported boolean queries with the NEAR keyword. I really miss that NEAR keyword, it could transform a search so easily into something worthwhile. When Alta Vista morphed into a yet another Google-style search, I moved to Google.

      I remember that. I used to use Altavista back when the URL was altavista.digital.com and back in the day it was great.

      --
      It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. - Einstein
    2. Re:Alta Vista by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I remember that. I used to use Altavista back when the URL was altavista.digital.com and back in the day it was great.

      Yeah, I remember that. If you looked really carefully on the altavista.digital.com homepage, you could just about see the search bar - hidden amongst the ads.

    3. Re:Alta Vista by Jurily · · Score: 1

      I used to use Altavista back when the URL was altavista.digital.com and back in the day it was great.

      Back then, the net was a bit easier on search engines, don't you think? I'd love to see how long that engine would last against today's spammers and SEO practices.

      Apples and oranges, I know.

    4. Re:Alta Vista by N3Roaster · · Score: 1

      Given that most of the Web back then was pages about Star Trek, pi, and Urusei Yatsura, search was an easier problem.

      --
      Remember RFC 873!
    5. Re:Alta Vista by rhyder128k · · Score: 1

      Altavista "did an Amiga"* and gave up its leadership position by completely standing still in the face of strong competition. A couple of years after I had moved over to google, I had a look to see what Altavista had done and it seemed that they had copied some of the google front page layout. And nothing else.

      I sometimes crave for the old Altavista days when the search engine searched for what you told it to rather than trying to be clever. Google can be nearly unusable when you don't want it search for declinations and synonyms. Helping it along in the beginning, Google enjoyed a short period of having a very tight, accurate database to work with before the spammers got wise. The automatic ad engine was easy to fool too so that you could amuse friends and family with a screenshot proclaiming: "Amazon has lots of books about Bill Gates being cruel to children". However, 95% of the time Google finds what I'm looking for and as a result I'm confident enough to bookmark only the obscure sites and stuff that I use daily. I keep Lycos as my backup.

      *Or "an Acorn", or "a 3DFX" etc. /me tries to click on the monkey to win a prize in a fit of nostalgia.

      --
      Michael Reed, freelance tech writer.
    6. Re:Alta Vista by TheRaven64 · · Score: 1

      Altavista didn't stand still, they became a portal. I switched to Google (having been an Altavista user since they had the .digital.com domain) because the Altavista front page took around 30 seconds to load on my modem while Google loaded instantly. I just looked, and they now have a more Google-like front page, but I don't know what the quality of their results is. Of the recent search engines, I love the interface from Clusty, but their index is so small that they usually fail to find the site I want.

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
  24. Guess what microsoft did by Conspiracy_Of_Doves · · Score: 5, Informative

    Apparently, Microsoft has acquired the domain bingsucks.com.

    1. Re:Guess what microsoft did by ais523 · · Score: 1

      Usual defensive acquiring of domains, to stop anyone else registering them. Most major companies do it, there's nothing unusual involved there.

      --
      (1)DOCOMEFROM!2~.2'~#1WHILE:1<-"'?.1$.2'~'"':1/.1$.2'~#0"$#65535'"$"'"'&.1$.2'~'#0$#65535'"$#0'~#32767$#1"
    2. Re:Guess what microsoft did by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      guess what they missed?

      bing-sucks.com
      Registrant: Till Backhaus
      created: 2009-06-01

    3. Re:Guess what microsoft did by sopssa · · Score: 1

      yep, google does the same for their domains aswell, aswell as lots of other companies.

    4. Re:Guess what microsoft did by sjorford · · Score: 1

      http://www.whois.net/whois/bingsucks.com

      Available Domains

      easybingsucks.com
      bestbingsuckslive.com
      mybingsuckspro.com ...

  25. slashdot scientology by jpules · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    hi slashdot

    wtf, scientology ads on the site now?

    i rock up and see the gaudy thing to the right

    fail

    it's not april first, so that's out. maybe some other joke I don't quite get?

  26. Typo that stuck by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This was just a typo that stuck. What happened was bill typed a message to some underling searching for his Bong that he misplaced and typed bing instead of bong. Someone saw the word "Search" and Bing" in the same email and had a brain fart.

  27. Did anonymous even try the video search? by Jabrwock · · Score: 4, Informative

    When I moused over video results, it seemed to do "skip play", fading out and in between jumps, as it "sampled" the video in 7 second clips. After 3 clips (from throughout a 20 minute video), it looped. Very nice for getting a feel for the video contents and quality.

    So I don't understand the beef about "Would a user still click on to the site if they can watch the whole video from within the search results?" because the user clearly can't watch the whole video from the search results.

    --
    Magic doesn't work in my presence. My power of disbelief is too strong.
    1. Re:Did anonymous even try the video search? by hansamurai · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I also rather like the image results, I can't speak for the actual images themselves, but the way they're presented is so much nicer than Google with a convenient dynamic load as you continue scrolling down the page. Live search did this too.

      Plus they find 1500 images for my site, five times as many as Google.

    2. Re:Did anonymous even try the video search? by noidentity · · Score: 1

      And the submitter devoted about a third of the supposed summary to raising this pet peeve issue of his. That's what the comments are for. Why is it so hard to hold one's tongue and submit an objective summary of the subject?

    3. Re:Did anonymous even try the video search? by columbus · · Score: 1

      I found the image search to be pretty lousy.

      I'm not commenting here on the layout of images (which is pretty slick), just the relevance of the images returned from a search term.
      I deliberately chose a 'sparse' search, one that even google has problems returning relevant images.
      Google returns a few relevant images; bing returns none - nothing but noise.

      The quality of the standard search seemed pretty good, but the quality of the image search has a ways to go.

      --
      friends don't let friends teleport drunk
  28. I really exist by tsa · · Score: 1

    I Binged (Bung?) and found myself, which indicates that Bing works well ;). I got approximately the same stuff as with Google.

    --

    -- Cheers!

    1. Re:I really exist by E.+Edward+Grey · · Score: 1

      Bang? Bebinged?

      This thread is starting to sound like a Blue Man Group concert.

      --

      ---don't make me break out my red pen.

    2. Re:I really exist by Merenth · · Score: 1

      How many people are going to Bing Badda for their first search?

    3. Re:I really exist by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How many people are going to Bing Badda for their first search?

      I don't know. My first "bing" was "google".

    4. Re:I really exist by camperdave · · Score: 1

      I binged my domain name, and after four pages, it still had not come up as a result. When I googled my domain name: first hit.

      --
      When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
    5. Re:I really exist by tsa · · Score: 1

      That's because Google is smarter than Bing. Bing is not Google, you know ;).

      --

      -- Cheers!

  29. Pitiful by mrawl · · Score: 1

    Truly awful. Very annoying layout. It's just a cynical marketing rebranding to attract eyeballs to the miserable failure that was live.com. Vintage M$, absolutely pathetic and contemptible. "Bing" yeh, right - well done boys.

    1. Re:Pitiful by cashman73 · · Score: 1

      But, strangely enough, the first thing you get in the list when you search for, "miserable failure", is President Bush's bio page on whitehouse.gov, so apparently they've got that working for them again! ;-)

  30. Life, The Universe, And Everything by sys.stdout.write · · Score: 2, Funny

    But it fails to answer this important question!

    Notice how Google gets it right.

    1. Re:Life, The Universe, And Everything by Jake+Griffin · · Score: 3, Funny

      There is one thing Google can't search for though: Chuck Norris

      --
      SIG FAULT: Post index out of bounds.
    2. Re:Life, The Universe, And Everything by YrWrstNtmr · · Score: 1, Insightful

      On day 1, did Google have that response?

    3. Re:Life, The Universe, And Everything by Rary · · Score: 1

      But it fails to answer this important question!

      Notice how Google gets it right.

      You just have to phrase it right.

      It seems it does other calculations too.

      --

      "You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war." -- Albert Einstein

    4. Re:Life, The Universe, And Everything by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You do realize MS search has been around for 10+ years.. possible even before google right?!?

    5. Re:Life, The Universe, And Everything by zippthorne · · Score: 1

      Damnit, why do people keep editing the question.

      It is not, "what is the answer to life the universe and everything." which is "bleach. Lots of it."

      It is "what is the answer to the ultimate question of life, the universe and everything." which is, apparently, the either the number 42 or a word composed of the arabic numerals 4 and 2, and the question is something we're still trying to figure out, but possibly has something to do with the multiplicative factors of the number and something about an english nightclub. Frankly, I'm also interested in the penultimate and antepenultimate questions as well, and no one have given either even a passing thought...

      So, google didn't get it right either.

      --
      Can you be Even More Awesome?!
  31. Bing, bong, binger, bang by stefanlasiewski · · Score: 2, Insightful

    * The reponse from a Bing search: "Bong" (like 'Ping' and 'Pong')

    * A person who searches on Bing: A binger (or is 'banger' a better word?)

    * When referring to Bing search results in the past tense, it's a "Bang", like "Ring" and "Rang". Or maybe it's "Bung", like "Ring" and "Rung".

    Hm... I didn't mean to make rude comments about Bing, but the name kind of lends itself to some bad nicknames.

    --
    "Can of worms? The can is open... the worms are everywhere."
    1. Re:Bing, bong, binger, bang by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So if one were to search for info about his friend's mother, he either:
      "googled" her.
      or
      "banged" her.

    2. Re:Bing, bong, binger, bang by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "Bing", "Zune", ...? Where does Microsoft come up with these names? And why aren't they stopped before they leave the building? Is there really no one in the company who thought to say, "You know, that name sounds kind of stupid"?

      On a related topic, can anyone else see the makers of Bink Video getting a little bit leery about the creation of Bing Video? Sure, they're different things, but Microsoft has sued other companies over similar trivial name differences. There's no way Microsoft will try that in this case -- Bink has been around too long, and the Bink codecs have been used in games published by Microsoft Games for years. But one still wonders whether Microsoft is trying to muddy the waters, or if they just don't care.

    3. Re:Bing, bong, binger, bang by illumin8 · · Score: 1

      * A person who searches on Bing: A binger (or is 'banger' a better word?)

      How about bunghole?

      --
      "When the president does it, that means it's not illegal." - Richard M. Nixon
  32. Bing is a bad choice of name... by DontBlameCanada · · Score: 1, Funny

    A common typo for me is hitting "o" instead of "i".

    >> Bing has several new features including Bing Cashback, Bing Video, and Bing xRank.

    A typo of that sort renders these, "Bong Cashback", "Bong Video" and "Bong xRank". Those search terms could easily result in fetching sites distinctly, NSFW.

  33. Foreign alright. by zonky · · Score: 1

    Bing thinks I'm from the UK, presumably based on language settings, rather than in New Zealand, (which it could determine from IP.).

    1. Re:Foreign alright. by Kalriath · · Score: 1

      Firefox? Our localised Firefox is en-GB.

      --
      For a site about things like basic rights, Slashdot users sure do like to censor "dissent".
  34. Search for "Linux" results in Microsoft products? by stefanlasiewski · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I noticed that also.

    Here are the first four "Search suggestions" for when I type "linux":

    linux
    linux windows
    linux microsoft
    linux vista

    Is this because Microsoft inserted itself into those search suggestions? Or is it because the majority of Bingers are using Microsoft products and thus the results are skewed ?

    --
    "Can of worms? The can is open... the worms are everywhere."
  35. Does anyone else... by phillymjs · · Score: 1

    ...hear Stephen Tobolowsky as Ned Ryerson in Groundhog Day exclaiming "BING!" every time they read the word?

    Also, does anyone else ponder why Microsoft's product names are either really generic and boring, or totally cheesy and cringe-worthy?

    ~Philly

    1. Re:Does anyone else... by ConceptJunkie · · Score: 1

      Also, does anyone else ponder why Microsoft's product names are either really generic and boring, or totally cheesy and cringe-worthy?

      Possibly it's related to the fact that Microsoft's products are either really generic and boring, or totally cheesy and cringe-worthy.

      The former (generic and boring names) was Microsoft's idea to subtly, or not so subtly, drive home the idea of their monopoly. Windows is a generic name. It's like "Microsoft OS"... the idea is that "Windows" is so generic it becomes interchangeable with "computer", or "software" or even "Internet". What software do you use in the office? Why, "Office"? With what do you explore the Internet? Why, "Internet Explorer". I was actually surprised that they moved away from their generic names with Vista.

      The latter (cheesy and cringeworthy) is because all the cool people work for Apple and Google and, well, anywhere but Microsoft.

      --
      You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
    2. Re:Does anyone else... by YrWrstNtmr · · Score: 1

      The former (generic and boring names) was Microsoft's idea to subtly, or not so subtly, drive home the idea of their monopoly. Windows is a generic name.

      Back in '00 or '01, I overheard this woman talking to the 'tech' at BestBuy?CompUSA?...
      'What kind of computer do you have?'
      "an HP Millenium"

      Today, I'd expect that same woman to describe her new PC as an 'HP Vista'

      The clueless shall ever remain clueless.

  36. They copied google, proved they cant innovate by Stu101 · · Score: 1

    I just had a look. Man what utter dogshit. It has pretty much copied Googles thinking on minimalist, but even fucked that up with a picture background. Morons.

    To my mind, it's just a bad copy. And the name, man, which tard thought that up.

    I really hope MSN stays were it is, insignificant. Only because it would be nice to see MS NOT win due to $$$ for once.

    --
    http://www.writeitfor.us - Writing IT for the IT generation.
  37. Interesting behavior on my linux box by dvh.tosomja · · Score: 1

    Ubuntu 8.04 all updates, Intel Atom 230, Intel GMA 945, Firefox, Noscript, Adblock Plus, Gnome, No compiz, sk_SK locale.
    When I search "foo" on bing.com and then click for search images, Xorg suddenly get 98% load.
    When I switch to another tab load go back to 0%.
    Anyone has same behavior?

  38. Video search blows up the the Flash debug player by kingcool1432 · · Score: 1

    The video site is unusable (literally) if you have the debug version of Flash Player installed. I keep getting this error popup which says Error #2044: Unhandled AsyncErrorEvent:. text=Error #2095: SmartPreviewNetStream was unable to invoke callback onMetaData. error=ReferenceError: Error #1069: Property onMetaData not found on SmartPreviewNetStream and there is no default value. at SmartPreview() at SmartPreview_fla::MainTimeline/frame1()

  39. Redundant results by Via_Patrino · · Score: 2, Informative

    It doesn't merge results from a same website.

  40. The knights by winwar · · Score: 1

    that said Bing.

  41. With apologies to Dennis Miller... by sootman · · Score: 3, Funny

    To learn more about Bing, type "bing search engine" into Google.

    --
    Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
    1. Re:With apologies to Dennis Miller... by powerslave12r · · Score: 1
      --
      Real men read Slashdot articles at -1, bottom up.
  42. Looks like a parking site or a DNS redirect. by msimm · · Score: 4, Interesting

    If I'd hit your link on accident I'd have assumed it was just another domineer squatting a high value (?) name. Who ever designed the page layout probably doesn't know the first thing about composition, my eyes can't seem to decide where to focus because all the blocks seem to be competing. Like an uglier version of google with over 1/3 of the top of the page (all you see before scrolling) dedicated to advertisements with not one, but TWO search boxes (the second simply to search within microsoft.com) which will probably frustrate and confuse as many users as it might help.

    --
    Quack, quack.
    1. Re:Looks like a parking site or a DNS redirect. by Blakey+Rat · · Score: 1

      not one, but TWO search boxes (the second simply to search within microsoft.com) which will probably frustrate and confuse as many users as it might help.

      Yeah, because Google would never have a Microsoft search box within search results:
      http://www.google.com/#hl=en&q=microsoft&aq=f&oq=&aqi=g10&fp=2Inaafc1UxE

      Seriously, you can't fault them for duplicating the functionality of the well-established leader in search.

    2. Re:Looks like a parking site or a DNS redirect. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Like an uglier version of google with over 1/3 of the top of the page (all you see before scrolling) dedicated to advertisements

      In addition to that, imagine that you are navigating such page in a Netbook (with a vertical resolution of 600 pixels) using Internet Explorer (look at the navigation bar).

      I kinda liked the Microsoft maps version... however, I wonder if it is "too late" in the sense that, after playing with the maps interface (and thinking that it feels cool) I know I would just go to maps.google.com when I need something because my fingers know how to use it.

      ~xtracto
      [anon. for I have modded in this thread]

  43. To close to Bung, the anus of slaughtered animals by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Well it is http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/bung

    2: the cecum or anus especially of a slaughtered animal

  44. Re:bing live bam boom bust balls clusterfuck by Gilmoure · · Score: 1

    The Happy Lil' Elves Magic Forest Company is still a viable provider of onsite security and defense. Don' let their name fool you.

    --
    I drank what? -- Socrates
  45. Not to worry by msimm · · Score: 4, Funny

    Nobody has registered bingsucksballs.com yet.

    --
    Quack, quack.
    1. Re:Not to worry by tool462 · · Score: 1

      I think that domain should be reserved for bing's rule 37 entry.

  46. Who needs Bing? Google works. by yog · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Bing's OK. But it's nothing special. Even if it's technically superior in certain ways to Google--I can't tell so I'll leave that for the intellectuals to tease out--there's no particular reason to switch.

    I have NEVER had a problem finding stuff on Google. Usually what I'm looking for appears in the first 10 hits. About 10% of the time, I need to rephrase my search, or add some "-" keywords to weed out some signal noise. But Google does the job, I'm used to it, and it seems to just keep getting better.

    There is so much power hidden inside Google's engine--stock quotes, mathematical calculations, language translation, mapping, document conversion, caches of deleted pages, paid links that I actually find useful, typo correction--the list goes on and on and on!

    What can Microsoft's search engine add to this stunningly rich resource that millions of us can't live without? What killer features does Microsoft give us? Some little tweaks here and there in the UI that may or may not make much difference. Some good ideas on supplemental information such as the "related searches" column on the left.

    Sorry, Microsoft, but Bing looks like MSN Search that's been tweaked a little. If Google didn't exist, you might have a winner on your hands, but this is just another "me, too" search system that will survive only as a niche product, funded by profits from the MS Office and Windows divisions.

    Any market penetration by Bing will probably come from super-glueing it to the Windows 7 desktop and Windows mobile handhelds, defaulting it on IE searching, and otherwise forcing it down customers' throats in whatever way they can, hoping a large enough population will be ignorant enough to just use the defaults. But now that "google" is a verb in the dictionary, Microsoft has its work cut out for it to hold and expand its little piece of the search market.

    --
    it's = "it is"; its = possessive. E.g., it's flapping its wings.
  47. video preview is already limited by the_other_chewey · · Score: 1

    How about trying before complaining? The video preview only shows excerpts of the video it links to.

  48. Bing is pretty pointless by tjstork · · Score: 1

    I tried Bing for about ten seconds and saw no immediate reason to switch from Google.

    Yawn.

    --
    This is my sig.
  49. New phrase: You've been "binged". by Futurepower(R) · · Score: 1

    Fifth result from Bing on searching for the word "test", copied exactly:
    #
    *
    Domain Not Valid
    This domain is not valid. Hosted by Network Solutions.
    * test.test.com
    * Cached page

  50. I wanted to check out this thumbnail video thing.. by FiloEleven · · Score: 1

    ...and upon hovering over a video still, I get this:

    Error #2044: Unhandled AsyncErrorEvent:. text=Error #2095: SmartPreviewNetStream was unable to invoke callback onMetaData. error=ReferenceError: Error #1069: Property onMetaData not found on SmartPreviewNetStream and there is no default value.
            at SmartPreview()
            at SmartPreview_fla::MainTimeline/frame1()

    I guess nobody at MS tested their results with the debug version of Flash Player?

  51. My prediction by Locke2005 · · Score: 1

    I predict this will be every bit as useful and well received as other Microsoft innovations like Microsoft Soundsmith and Bob! I'm sure plenty of people will use it just as long as they are paid to do so... but that isn't a very viable business model for a search engine.

    --
    I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
  52. Re:Who needs Bing? Google works. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Amen. Google are the cool guys standing around. Microsoft are the obnoxious nerds forcing themselves onto the group, pretending to belong.

  53. Has anyone else noticed this? by powerslave12r · · Score: 1

    Under the www.bing.com/xrank page, when you look under the 'Politicians', number one for today is Melissa Hart, and clicking on her takes me to a page with all three links for the actress Melissa Joan Hart and not the politician.
    bing has some homework to do. The preview seems a little pre-mature.

    --
    Real men read Slashdot articles at -1, bottom up.
  54. The Sound of Annoyance by deanston · · Score: 5, Funny

    Typical MSFT logic again. The official blog describes 'Bing' as "the sound of found". Problem is - I haven't started looking for anything yet, WHY IS THERE A SOUND? Furthermore, even MSFT admit that to compete with Google you need a name that can become a verb - so WHY DID THEY DESCRIBE 'BING' AS OFFICIALLY A SOUND (which is a noun)?? And then the name keeping chiming in your head - Bing! Bing! Bing! Bing! - like a bad commercial jingle that is stuck there and makes you hate it, despise it, and swear never to touch it - no matter how good it actually is. I'm guessing that would be roughly 50% of the population that MSFT still will not convince.

    1. Re:The Sound of Annoyance by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      To your first question: the same reason it's called Google when there are less than a googol search result. In other words, that's a really stupid complaint about a marketing gimmick.

      Also, sounds that are onomatopoeias are often both nouns and verbs. Consider "buzz" and "hiss".

  55. Mouse over that line+dot by choseph · · Score: 1

    That weird line+dot isn't just a visualization. Get your mouse close to it to see some relevant info pulled from the page at that location.

  56. It's kinda cute in a way by Flipao · · Score: 1

    The way it's trying so hard to ape Google. In a way, it's a bit like those netbook distros that try to disguise Linux as Windows.... sweet irony.

  57. So far I like it by phreakhead · · Score: 1

    I'm not trying to be anti-Slashdot here by not automatically bashing Microsoft, but the search results are pretty nice. On the left you can mouse over to see a preview of the page... seems to be helpful since Google *always* manages to cut off the description right before the part you need! The video search is awesome! I can mouse over and see if it's really the video I was looking for or just a poser. Also works great for porn.

    The definition showing up right in the results is nice, instead of having to always click "define" and wait for another slow-ass dictionary site to load. However, their spell check sucks. I tried typing "pthisis" when I meant "phthisis" and then I had to go to Google to find the correct spelling!

    Obviously it's not completely ready yet to compete with Google, but they have some pretty good interface improvements which I hope Google will copy one day.

    1. Re:So far I like it by WARM3CH · · Score: 1

      I also liked the mouse-over preview. It is badly needed in Google. Sometimes I have to click on tens of search results in Google just to close them right away. Considering that sometimes linked websites are quite slow, this process of click, quick look, close could be very boring. The results so far are comparable to Google to me. I'm going to use it for a while to evaluate it better but so far it is promising.

  58. Automatic fail... by Diabolus+Advocatus · · Score: 1

    It's an automatic fail for me...

    I live in Ireland, and quite often I like to search only within Ireland. Google and Yahoo detects that I'm in Ireland. Bing automatically redirects to the UK. ROI != UK

  59. HIJACKED! by Wisconsingod · · Score: 4, Informative

    Anyone else notice this ?
    some users of IE6, including yours truely, have had their systems "Hijacked" by Bing. No matter what registry settings are switched, Bing has become the default search engine. We cannot "Customise" the search settings. I wonder how many others have this problem or if anyone has a solution.
    Hopefully Slashdot will pick up on my story below (help me out, and comment on it)
    http://slashdot.org/submission/1011681/Microsoft-Forcing-Bing-on-Users

    1. Re:HIJACKED! by Slothrup · · Score: 4, Informative

      Sounds like a feature to get you to stop using IE6 already, goddamn it!

      --
      The difference between theory and practice is that, in theory, there is no difference between theory and practice.
    2. Re:HIJACKED! by Kalriath · · Score: 2, Informative

      It's a mistake - that's all. If you read the Google thread you linked to, you'd see that it happens because auto.search.msn.com handles "address bar search" and uses the "prov" parameter to decide where to send it. The new engine doesn't handle the "prov" parameter, which no doubt they'll fix. They're not intentionally hijacking anything. In fact, they're not even hijacking anything!

      --
      For a site about things like basic rights, Slashdot users sure do like to censor "dissent".
    3. Re:HIJACKED! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's a mistake - that's all.

      Mistake? Riiiight. All of a sudden all the IE users who chose to use google for their searches are redirected to bing?

      If you read the Google thread you linked to, you'd see that it happens because auto.search.msn.com handles "address bar search" and uses the "prov" parameter to decide where to send it. The new engine doesn't handle the "prov" parameter, which no doubt they'll fix. They're not intentionally hijacking anything. In fact, they're not even hijacking anything!

      The problem is the "address bar search" is entirely controlled server-side. Regardless of what search engine you chose, the search gets sent to auto.search.msn.com, who is then supposed to redirect it to your chosen search engine. BUT MS HAS STOPPED DOING THIS.

      Of course, even microsoft doesn't play nice with microsoft's standards.

    4. Re:HIJACKED! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      First of all, fuck you for using IE6. Second, you probably don't use IE6, you just have IE6 for web development testing and were looking for some way to bitch about Bing + IE6. Congrats, you're a troll.

    5. Re:HIJACKED! by pbhj · · Score: 1

      Serves you right for using IE6.

      Do you complain you can't get fidelity out of your wax discs music recordings too?

    6. Re:HIJACKED! by Wisconsingod · · Score: 1

      IE6 is as high as our office wants to upgrade to. I don't have much choice on the version of the browser I use.

    7. Re:HIJACKED! by Wisconsingod · · Score: 1

      Ahh, but they are... Just like you said from the linked comments "Bing stopped acknowledging provider requests."

      Microsoft Owns IE, Microsoft owns Bing, IE6 uses Microsoft search options from it's own servers to provide service to third party search engines. They have now stopped providing that option, which I believe is grounds for a violation of their previous anti-trust case.... part of the settlement required Microsoft to share its application programming interfaces with third-party companies, part of which was this feature of the web browser.

  60. Apropos "Bing"... by Hurricane78 · · Score: 1

    It's the Luxemburgish slang word for "jail". I kid you not, as I am Luxemburgish (genetically only half) myself.

    Reminds me of the German school newspaper in my final school, that was called "Flapp" (pronounced "fluhpp")... which is Luxemburgish for "turd".

    I'm eagerly awaiting Microsoft Flapp to come out too. ^^

    --
    Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
    1. Re:Apropos "Bing"... by Corporate+Troll · · Score: 1

      I am Luxemburgish (genetically only half) myself.

      How many of us are there on slashdot anyway?

      Haven't seen many coworkers read slashdot. Most of them stick to German or French tech newssources.

    2. Re:Apropos "Bing"... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In chinese, bing means ill/sick.

  61. My Bingaling... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...my bingaling, won't you play with my bingaling.

  62. No.. by encoderer · · Score: 1
    1. Re:No.. by Jake+Griffin · · Score: 1

      See my response to previous poster here

      --
      SIG FAULT: Post index out of bounds.
  63. Anonymous Coward by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Google finds more porn.
    234 million vs 230 million results.

  64. That does not mean what you think it does by linumax · · Score: 2, Interesting

    AFAIK, suggested results are generated by going through what users have already searched for. It's quite likely that a pre-beta search engine, which has so far been prominently used by Microsoft employees or partners would have a "bias" towards Windows.
    Looks like most of these people have been looking for Linux and Windows comparisons instead trying to download Linux.

  65. Bug already found: allinurl by s1lentslayer · · Score: 1

    If you search for allinurl you get a white page.

  66. help by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I've been "bung" !

  67. Additionally.. by encoderer · · Score: 0

    Google's natural language query features are so spotty that you can't ask a question and expect an answer with any reliability. For example, similar to your example, "How tall is Barack Obama" answers me correctly. "How old is Barack Obama" does not.

    "Florida Unemployment Rate" answers me. "Florida Minimum Wage" does not.

    And on and on.

    And in different areas, it really does shine. For example:

    Farecast integration, eg TPA to ORD:
    http://www.bing.com/search?q=tpa+to+ord&filt=all

    Search-the-site box, eg New Egg:
    http://www.bing.com/search?q=New+Egg&go=&form=QBRE

    Guided Search Sidebar, eg atrial fibrillation:
    http://www.bing.com/search?q=atrial+fibrillation&filt=all

    And the hover states for search results are impressive. It doesn't just pull the first X bytes, it parses the entire page and returns a synopsis as best it can. These features were from Powerset and they've done a good job with them here. Similarly, the hovers on image search.

    I don't know if Bing will gain any traction or not. But at the very least it's the 2nd best search engine available and it's been live for about 12 hours now...

    1. Re:Additionally.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I tried searching for NYC to LON and it sure seemed useless.

    2. Re:Additionally.. by encoderer · · Score: 1

      click on "travel" then enter your query. not so hard, was it?

    3. Re:Additionally.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      it's been live for about 12 hours now

      Actually, it's been "not live" as in "not live.com" for some number of hours now. Bing.com is just Microsoft's rebranding of live.com. Going to live.com now redirects to bing.com. And they've been working on the live.com incarnation for quite some time now.

      I actually stumbled onto the transition as it happened. I was trying to get the live.com cashback deal on an eBay purchase, when suddenly I ended up at bing.com. This was after browsing at live.com a few minutes earlier. At first I wondered if bing was some phishing site. After verifying its authenticity, I tried to proceed, but eBay failed to recognize the redirect from the new site as cashback-eligible. Thankfully that cleared up after a few hours.

  68. Do Not Want by argent · · Score: 1

    I Do Not Want to have a video start playing when my mouse happens to hover over it.

    Vibrant adspam is bad enough.

  69. Re:Search for "Linux" results in Microsoft product by Actually,+I+do+RTFA · · Score: 1

    Or is it because the majority of Bingers are using Microsoft products and thus the results are skewed ?

    Probably. If MS had seeded Bing, it's unlikely that the first site from "Linux Vista" would produce a pro-Linux site.

    --
    Your ad here. Ask me how!
  70. This is why I hate these guys. . . by RazorSharp · · Score: 0

    "Bing" - it just sounds like a group of guys tried to analyze the appeal of the name "Google" utilize the same formula for their own name. The name Google never particularly appealed to me, neither did their logo, but their service functioned better than the competitors. Copying an existing business model in every way and attempting to use marketing to gain the upper hand is just fucked up. I wish I could say that it didn't work, that quality and originality are important to consumers, but, well, it's worked for them so far. I really like how Google's handled them so far, so perhaps they keep ahead.

    --
    "From the depths of my skeptical and rationalist soul, I ask the Lord to protect me from California touchie-feeliedom."
  71. I don't want the sound to play when I hover by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Aack! It makes noise if I hover in the wrong place! .... Which is to say, it plays the sound for the video when I hover over the clip that's been found. You'd expect that, and you'd want it in a situation where noise isn't a problem, but it would mean muting my speaker whenever I do a search at work.

  72. 1997 called back... by chord.wav · · Score: 1

    And all this fuss is for a search engine?? Well, Google is doing a Web browser so I guess this completes the ying yang of the industry...

  73. Where do I turn off the obnoxious background? by Dutchmang · · Score: 1

    I thought I might have found the switch with the "back/forward" button at the lower right.... but it was just there to urge me to install Silverlight. Grrrr.....

    --
    I'm looking over the wall, and they're looking at me!
  74. A better name by cjsm · · Score: 1

    Does anyone else think Bing is a stupid sounding name?

    I have a better one.

    Bling!

    Use Microsoft's new search and get all the Bling! you've been missing with other search engines.

    That says it all.

    --
    This ad space for rent.
  75. What can they offer ? Monopoly leverage ! by DrYak · · Score: 1

    What can Microsoft's search engine add to this stunningly rich resource that millions of us can't live without? What killer features does Microsoft give us?

    Make it the default search engine on Windows 7's Internet Explorer 8 (or whatever is the latest version du jour once Bing matures beyond beta).
    Thus the 80% market share who keep using the broken IE because it does their job, they are used to it, and they don't want going through the hassle of installing something new, will automatically start using bing.
    (And won't bother going to google, as bing does their job and they don't want going through the hassle of trying to understand how you configure a new search engine in a browser or what the hell are Mycroft plugins)

    Being a monopoly, Microsoft has the immense advantage of being able to leverage the laziness and fear of efforts of changing of the sheeple.

    Meanwhile, some EU politicians will probably burst an aneurysm.

    --
    "Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
  76. Re:Search for "Linux" results in Microsoft product by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    years of experience say: "there are not accidents"

  77. Here what I first tought when I heard "Bing" by jeanph01 · · Score: 1

    Memorable quotes for Groundhog Day (1993)

    Ned: Phil? Hey, Phil? Phil! Phil Connors? Phil Connors, I thought that was you!
    Phil: Hi, how you doing? Thanks for watching.
    [Starts to walk away]
    Ned: Hey, hey! Now, don't you tell me you don't remember me because I sure as heckfire remember you.
    Phil: Not a chance.
    Ned: Ned... Ryerson. "Needlenose Ned"? "Ned the Head"? C'mon, buddy. Case Western High. Ned Ryerson: I did the whistling belly-button trick at the high school talent show? Bing! Ned Ryerson: got the shingles real bad senior year, almost didn't graduate? Bing, again. Ned Ryerson: I dated your sister Mary Pat a couple times until you told me not to anymore? Well?
    Phil: Ned Ryerson?
    Ned: Bing!
    Phil: Bing.

  78. The video use is interesting and rasies a question by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    you search google for videos, clicking the link will take you to the owner's webpage (or whatever page the video is hosted on).

    I searched for "SCCA", and while it does show the hosting domain (IE> Youtube, etc), when you click to watch the video opens IN BING, it doesn't open the content hosters home page.

    Personally I can see content owners getting pissed by this and possibly suing. It's no different than if google shows a summary of a news site article, but when you click the link, instead of pulling up that news service page, google loads the full article in THEIR OWN PAGE without any credit, etc going to the news service. Plus the hosting site loses any revenue from ads.

    If Microsoft doesn't correct this, I can see a robots.txt file going up on a good number of sites. How long until Bing crawls Hulu and other sites of that nature and starts issues with Hulu and content owners/providers?

  79. Habits are hard to break by MahariBalzitch · · Score: 1

    I've played with it a little and Bing seems to be pretty decent. The problem is that I am so used to using Google for searching that it is a hard habit to break. I don't see myself using Bing like I use Google unless I make it my default search engine and force myself to use it (which I'm not really willing to do since Google does the job just fine). The only way I would make the switch is if Bing provides better search results. This has yet to be seen from any Google competitor...

  80. try "bing sucks" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    awesome results with the default "moderate" safe search enabled.

    hah.

  81. Linux vs Microsoft by HermMunster · · Score: 1

    Type in Linux vs Microsoft in the search field and watch what it brings up. Just enough to laugh at if it wasn't so skewered.

    --
    You can lead a man with reason but you can't make him think.
  82. Re:Search for "Linux" results in Microsoft product by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The search suggestions are related searches
            * Linux Download
            * Ubuntu Linux
            * Linux Operating System
            * Linux Mint
            * Linux Software
            * Puppy Linux
            * Linux XP
            * Damn Small Linux
    Not what you mentioned.

    Either MS staff is looking at slashdot comments in realtime and redefining the priority
    or the decision engine learns very quickly about the search trends
    or you lied. :)

  83. Re:Search for "Linux" results in Microsoft product by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    see above discussion. It is more likely be the result of the fact that, most of users of the pre-released Bing are Microsoft employees. Not many of them have searched for your favorite distro. Broader user base now may shift the algorithm to display different phases in near future.

  84. Re:Search for "Linux" results in Microsoft product by quacking+duck · · Score: 2, Informative

    Call BS all you want, I just visited bing.com for the very first time, typed "linux" into the search field, and verified for myself that GP is correct.

    The suggestions I got, in order, were:

    * linux
    * linux windows
    * linux microsoft
    * linux vista
    * linux commands
    * linux download
    * linux software
    * linux distros

    It knows I'm coming from Canada, so if you're getting different results where you are, maybe geography plays a role?

  85. Re:Search for "Linux" results in Microsoft product by Tubal-Cain · · Score: 1

    It knows I'm coming from Canada, so if you're getting different results where you are, maybe geography plays a role?

    I think he's just trolling. It's the second of three very similar posts.

  86. Holy Google Goggles Batman! by gearloos · · Score: 1

    That interface is so close to google it's kinda eerie. Try the image search, down a layer etc... Well what part of this surprises me? None. I mean, c'mon, it's about time after all the Vista fiasco etc.. .that they (M$oft) got back to the business model that works for them. Find a good product, copy it, then offer it free to drive the other guy out of the market, then charge for "features and addons". M$oft FTW

    --
    "Computers are a lot like Air Conditioners" "They both work great until you start opening Windows"
  87. Bing sucks (here's why) by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 1
    OK, I just clicked on bing.com and got a page, then typed in my search in English, click "only English" and search, and I get taken to a page of Chinese search results. Did I mention my IP is in the PRC? I fucking hate idiot web pages that try to guess who I am, and I even more hate web pages with no English option. A whole page with nothing on it to say "click here for relief" except for sign up for an account, which I'm damned if I'll do just to complete a web search.

    Oh, and instead of searching for what I typed in, it "helpfully" translated it to Chinese and searched for that instead. Conclusion: bing sucks, it's totally unusable - I'd rather use baidu. My ¥0.01.

    --
    Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
    1. Re:Bing sucks (here's why) by mjwx · · Score: 1

      Did I mention my IP is in the PRC?

      You're lucky that works for you. My IP is from Perth, Western Australia but Bing, just as MS Live did thinks I live in the UK. The longest single flight in the world is between Perth, Australia and London, England, I couldn't live much further away from the UK if I tried*.

      Google doesn't seem to have a problem picking up where I am or doing location based searches.

      * I have nothing against the residents of the UK (well maybe against the Welsh).

      --
      Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
    2. Re:Bing sucks (here's why) by swordgeek · · Score: 1

      "I fucking hate idiot web pages that try to guess who I am...

      Agreed.
      ...and I even more hate web pages with no English option."

      Um...maybe not everybody writes web pages in English. Maybe they don't know English, and don't care about you!

      --

      "People who do stupid things with hazardous materials often die." -- Jim Davidson on alt.folklore.urban
    3. Re:Bing sucks (here's why) by DNS-and-BIND · · Score: 1

      Well, I was referring to a site where you are redirected to another language's page. I use bilingual sites all the time, and if they've got two versions then they'll have the button up there somewhere to change to Chinese. The reverse is also true, just scan the Chinese for the magical word "English".

      --
      Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
    4. Re:Bing sucks (here's why) by swordgeek · · Score: 1

      Ah, OK. That's perfectly understandable then. I hate 'em too.

      --

      "People who do stupid things with hazardous materials often die." -- Jim Davidson on alt.folklore.urban
  88. Doesn't Microsoft ever fucking learn? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Plays instantly" means "will be used to publish viruses within a week of being introduced."

    Idiots.

  89. but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    can it understand 1 + 2 ?

  90. The search results aren't too good by HonestButCurious · · Score: 1

    I tried searching for this phrase (don't ask why):
    "six seven eight triple nine eight two one-by two"

    Google gave me the correct results, Bing gave me something totally bizarre about the Oshkosh Titans.

    I can add bells and whistles to the results myself using Greasemonkey, thank you. The server's responsible for good, relevant results, and this is not happening right now.

  91. xRank by noz · · Score: 1

    xRank: when all else fails, put an "x" in front of the name.

  92. Re:Calculations by sasha328 · · Score: 1

    Well, this is also something I use quite regularly. I checked it out on bing, and it looks like it works like on the other search engines. Same queries for google, yahoo and bing returned almost the same results (bing rounds to 6 digits, yahoo doesn't do complex equations):

    The calculation is: 200 AUD in CAD
    Bing returned: 200 AUD = 177.00 CAD after a sponsored site
    Yahoo returned nothing in terms of calculations
    Google returned: 200 Australian dollars = 176.673866 Canadian dollars with no sponsored sites preceding it
    wolfram Alpha returned C$176.72 with a historical graph of exchange rates as well as other exchange rates against the AUD!

    I did another set of calculations: 500+100*5
    Bing returned: 500+100*5 = 1,000 with no sponsored sites followed by a lot of search results
    Yahoo returned: 500+100*5 = 1,000 followed by a lot of search results
    Google returned: 500 + (100 * 5) = 1 000 with no search results
    wolfram Alphs returned 1000 as expected, but also spelled it out and gave me the SI prefix kilo for it

    I did a SQRT(9) and sin(90) calculation, only yahoo didn't return a calculation, bing and google did (sin (90) = 0.89...). Wolfram Alpha also went "above and beyond" a simple answer by spelling out the answer (three) to the SQRT question, but also gave a visual representation (***). For the sin(90)it recognised that it is in degrees, and gave me the correct answer of 1.

  93. Results censored on german bing by toffi · · Score: 1

    The german version of http://www.bing.de/ is censored by default and so far I couldn't find an option to turn it off.

    Even search results for words like Strumpfhose(tights) are censored and not displayed.

    So this makes the decision easy....

  94. Re:Search for "Linux" results in Microsoft product by agravier · · Score: 1

    Weird, I also got the "linux windows" results and I am searching from Poland on Firefox on OS X.

  95. not. by slashmojo · · Score: 1

    All works fine for me on centos with firefox.. I'm quite liking it so far. Its nice to have a usable alternative to Google at last.

  96. Searched for "search engines" by gsasha · · Score: 1

    Guess what, Google is not mentioned there.
    Haha
    Even nicer, try to search "google" and "microsoft" on bing. Compare.
    I for one wouldn't trust a search engine so biased.

  97. What the acronym "BING" means? by gsasha · · Score: 1

    But It's Not Google

  98. 'Fair use' by dugeen · · Score: 1

    Fair use has got nothing to do with it. If a site makes a video publicly available, they're implicitly granting permission for anyone to download and play it. Whether that's directly, or through an intermediate site, is neither here or there.

  99. Privacy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So, I went to try Bing. Clicked in the search box, and got a dropdown, with all my Google searches from last week.

    WTF?

    How did they even get hold of those data in the first place? The browser should prevent that. And no, I'm not using IE, but Chrome.

    Addendum: Ok, tried the same thing in Firefox. It doesn't happen there. So it might be a (serious, imho) bug in Chrome, perhaps related to the name of the text field.

  100. I find just the opposite... by bradley13 · · Score: 1

    Funny, the first think I thought when I tried a search on Bing was: they copied Google's layout entirely. The search results are formatted similarly, adverts with a colored background appear at the top, other text adverts at the top-right. The only substantive difference is the area on the left with "related searches".

    The Google results remain qualitatively better, at least in my quick test. Google tends to give the home-page of a useful site at the first hit. Bing's top results seem to be either sites that link to a useful site, or else content pages deep within a site. Frankly, the same kind of poor results that I associate with MSN. Perhaps Bing nothing but a new face on an old search engine?

    --
    Enjoy life! This is not a dress rehearsal.
  101. Bing maps aren't as well thought out by Nefarious+Wheel · · Score: 1

    Google Maps seems to do a better job than Bing - I had a bit of trouble getting Bing to point out a street address. It pointed out the nearest freeway offramp, which is kind of useful, but I had to find the map point of the street address myself. It took a bit of mousewheeling to find the right scale for it too. Google just does it.

    --
    Do not mock my vision of impractical footwear
  102. Wrong by Any+Web+Loco · · Score: 1

    This is just flat out wrong - typing "1+1" into Bing comes back with "Calculation: 1 + 1 = 2"

    1. Re:Wrong by Jake+Griffin · · Score: 1

      Why can't people read other posts before replying? I've answered this three times already. I was mistaken about the calculator in Bing. But Google's calculator is still way better.

      --
      SIG FAULT: Post index out of bounds.
    2. Re:Wrong by Any+Web+Loco · · Score: 1

      Fair enough and my bad - didn't realise I was browsing at +3 when I posted. Apologies.

  103. The sound of "found": Bob Hope by David+Gerard · · Score: 1

    This morning, our dear leader Steve Ballmer is unveiling our completely new search service, unrelated to anything we at Microsoft have ever done before: Bob Hope.

    We spent lots of time listening to you, except when you told us how much MSN Search^W^W Live Search^W^W Kumo sucked ’cause you're just wrong about that, to learn which buzzwordy Web 2.0 thingies you use search for today. Finding a webpage that has anything to do with the search terms you entered is so passé, dahling.

    So today we're introducing a new kind of search, that goes beyond traditional search engines that do tedious things like find stuff, to instead help you make faster, more informed decisions. (Windows 7 is peachy keen, by the way.) We think of Bob Hope as a Decision Engine. We've sued Stephen Wolfram into atomic dust using our patents on FAT and Mono, co-opted the Wolfram Alpha engine and swapped Mathematica for Visual Basic and Wolfram's brain for the exhumed corpse of Bob Hope.

    So why did we pick Bob Hope as the new core of our search? We needed a brand that was as fresh and new as our approach. It needed to be like the product: optimized for the Internet. A name that was memorable, short, easy to spell, and that would function well as a URL around the world.

    And just look at these results!

    What do we want?
    Braaains.
    When do we want them?
    Braaains.
    What do I need to run Windows 7?
    Braaains.
    What's Bill Gates got that means you should buy everything you can from the company he founded?
    Braaains.
    What's the final proof of Steve Ballmer's equal genius to Steve Jobs?
    Vistaaa.

    This is something new, something improved! You need to try it! It'll give so much more betterer results than that other search engine we can't name because Steve will wedge another chair up our butts! Please, come and try our new and improved service! FOR GOD'S SAKE TRY THE DAMN SERVICE. OR THE PUPPY GETS IT. We're Microsoft. We're serious as a heart attack on this one.

    --
    http://rocknerd.co.uk
  104. Porno for the win? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Is Microsoft taking learning from the Beta/VHS war? VHS took the lead with support of the adult industry. As an underdog in the search war, Bing seems to play very well with X-rated search results.

    If you click on Bing Videos and search for a graphic term (such as "Sasha Grey" or "double anal") you'll get unsolicited access to hundreds and thousands of videos. Which ARE playable right then and there bypassing ads and pop-ups. Similar to wankspider and the other porn search engines out, Bing actually works...

    Methinks MS is aware of how well Bing works with porn. Has there been a major Search engine that has been this Sex-friendly before? I don't believe so and this might give Bing a strange edge and actually gain some market share. If teen males start using Bing to find porn, I'm sure they'll still use Bing occasionally as college students and working adults.

    Btw, try searching for "Vixta." It's a Linux distro and Bing will return the Vista home page as the first result, whereas all other engines return the Vixta source-forge page... Hmm...

  105. Funny thing... by relguj9 · · Score: 1

    I actually did the search for "linux" on both engines and compared... and I liked the results I got from bing.com over google.com =X.

    Related Searches and Search History are very neatly placed and are far more useful than Google's ads.

    It would be nice to add a calculator to Bing, but that seems trivial.

    They DO have maps as well O_O bing.com/maps/

    This could be a very legit competitor to Google. Competition is good.

  106. Re:Who needs Bing? Google works. by HermMunster · · Score: 1

    In the past 2 decades we gave Microsoft the keys to the whole software universe. This was the absolute wrong thing to do. We did this by supporting their technologies blindly. We didn't look forward enough into the future, and Microsoft's own eye toward the future wasn't disclosed to us. As a result we end up with a company that has become a criminal monopolist in no less than 3 continents and 4 nations.

    I know, personally, that the use of embrace, extend, extinguish is a very bad thing for our industry and it has killed more competition and closed more markets in favor of Microsoft than anything else. Lock in technologies are a bad thing. Trade journals are trying to sweeten it up by calling them lock in of defacto standards. This shows a skewer in Microsoft's favor. Why? Because trade journals rely on advertising and through advertising they make their money to pay salaries, and Microsoft has the money to make that a little easier on the trade journals.

    The problem lies in that we the consumer gave them the keys by giving them the ideas that they could implement within the scope of their embrace, extend, extinguish--and in the end cost us dearly in the area of competition, which is supposed to bring innovation along with it.

    To watch Microsoft's bing give biased results skewered in their favor is not a positive thing. It is a very harmful thing.

    For this reason, and for their past indiscretions, we should not be giving them the formula to solve their problems. Let their products fail without us telling them how to succeed at destroying more competition. Bing is not important. We've been finding what we need on google just fine for a long time. We don't need to have another product concocted by a criminal monopolist which is showing straight out of the gate that they are baised.

    --
    You can lead a man with reason but you can't make him think.
  107. Re:Search for "Linux" results in Microsoft product by stefanlasiewski · · Score: 1

    Interestingly, it shows completely different results for me. I still get the same list today.

    Your bing search profile may behave different from mine.

    --
    "Can of worms? The can is open... the worms are everywhere."
  108. Linux rulez by gphilip · · Score: 1
  109. BING Is Not Google by asdfndsagse · · Score: 1