Bing: Reactions from around the web

Microsoft has released its new search engine, which it is referring to as a "decision engine" because it's supposed to help you make decisions. As with all things Microsoft, it warranted strong reactions from around the web. Let's take a look at what some people were saying:

• Forrester analyst, Shar VanBoskirk likes it a lot and writes in her post, Microsoft's Bing Will Change the Face of Search, that this search engine is actually designed more for the way people search and she thinks that will be a boon for marketers. 
• David Coursey of PC World is less than impressed, however, in his post, Microsoft Bing Goes Live: So What? He writes, "It is not that I dislike Bing, so much as I just couldn't care less."
• Michael Arrington writes in Tech Crunch that Apparently Bing is Something of a Hit as readers left lots of positive comments about the accuracy of the results and the design of the interface.
• Seth Godin criticizes the Bing ad campaign in his post The Next Google when he says, "Google is not seen as broken by many people, and a hundred million dollars trying to persuade us that it is, is money poorly spent."

Bing doesn't necessarily want to be your go-to engine for everything, but only for what Microsoft thinks you look for most often on the web, and that involves four things: Travel, local search, health and shopping. For travel, health and shopping most people have their favorite sites and there's not much to gain there. Local search could be a winner though, as it provides a way to find information where you live and there is value in that.

The search results frankly remind me of Ask.com with a bit of a different interface. For the last couple of years, Ask.com has given you a set of results with the paid results on top and suggested searches to the the right. Microsoft spins this a bit by putting the suggested searches on the left. It also compiles a search history on screen, which is moderately interesting although it could get unwieldy in a hurry. The images interface is nice in that when you select one it leaves a list of thumbnails on the left side of the screen so you don't have to go back to the main list to choose a different picture.

Overall though, I'm with David Coursey. There's not much to see here that I haven't seen before. Sure, it's repackaged and they're doing a heck of job trying to sell it, but in the end, as Seth Godin points out, most people don't have a problem with Google and they aren't likely to change.

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