At least try binging it

Have you binged already? I have, but not much. I have my browser’s default search provider set to Google, and that’s what keeps taking me there. And given that Google is really good at what it does, it’s easy to keep googling.

But you don’t develop knowledge without pushing yourself. So yeah, I set my default search to be Bing, at least for now, and I recommend the same for you. You can get a search provider for both IE and Firefox from Long Zheng’s blog post. Also, if you’re not yet familiar with the advertised differentiation between a search and decision engine, the same post also has a Microsoft’s marketing video on that.

So what do I think about Bing? Way too early to comment. For the most part I’m not noticing the difference, which may be considered both good and bad. I’m not sure what I think, and I certainly consider switching back to Google a possibility. But it would be a shame to judge Bing just by looks – no matter how it succeeds, it and Wolfram Alpha represent the most significant steps forward to enhance the mainstream web search experience. That alone makes it worth checking out.

PS. If you’re from Finland, it’s a good idea to switch your Bing locale to US English (from the upper right corner of bing.com). Until the Bing rollout is complete, pretending to be American is pretty much the way to experience the full engine.

June 10, 2009 · Jouni Heikniemi · 3 Comments
Tags:  · Posted in: Web

3 Responses

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