Bing is Not the Next Google
It seems like nowadays, every time a new website is launched that has any form of search focused on it everyone wants to call it “the next Google”. This happened with Wolfram|Alpha, Twitter and is now happening with Bing.
I recently read a blog post called The Next Google by Seth Godin; whom of which I usually enjoy his posts but this time I have to disagree.
Now the fact that people jokingly refer to Bing being an acronym that stands for “But It’s Not Google”, is ok with me because Bing is not just a normal search engine. It was not designed to be a Google Killer and its intended purpose is not to be a typical search engine where people just get a list of 10 results to a keyword or phrase that they searched on.
Taken from the Microsoft official media release:
Bing is specifically designed to build on the benefits of today’s search engines but begins to move beyond this experience with a new approach to user experience and intuitive tools to help customers make better decisions, focusing initially on four key vertical areas: making a purchase decision, planning a trip, researching a health condition or finding a local business.
This is why Bing is considered a “Decision Engine”, not just a search engine.
Microsoft is not trying to make it the next Google. Everyone else is calling it that, Microsoft is not. There are similar features to a search engine, just like every search tool but the whole user concept is different.
When Wolfram|Alpha was launched, everyone was calling that a new Google, until people realized that its not intended to be used as a search engine but as a knowledge engine to find out answers to specific equations and aim to collect and curate all objective data; implement every known model, method, and algorithm; and make it possible to compute whatever can be computed about anything with the goal is of building on the achievements of science and other systematization’s of knowledge to provide a single source that can be relied on by everyone for definitive answers to factual queries.
The same goes for Bing, you have to look at it not as a search engine and don’t treat it as such. Use it for what it is intended for and then make your decision on what you will call it.
