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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?'"

17 of 310 comments (clear)

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

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

  2. To disable tracking by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

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

  3. 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!

  4. Google and Bing side by side.. by Wescotte · · Score: 5, Informative
  5. 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...

  6. Guess what microsoft did by Conspiracy_Of_Doves · · Score: 5, Informative

    Apparently, Microsoft has acquired the domain bingsucks.com.

  7. 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.
  8. Redundant results by Via_Patrino · · Score: 2, Informative

    It doesn't merge results from a same website.

  9. 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...
  10. 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)

  11. 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".
  12. Anonymous Coward by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

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

  13. 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.

  14. 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?