Zulu Digital | Microsoft introduces Bing, its new brand & decision engine

Finally, after many months of waiting, Microsoft have settled on a name for, and have begun to introduce, their new Search Engine which will replace MSN Live Search.

Only a couple of months have passed by since we introduced the idea of 'Kumo', but now, after reasonably negative feedback, Microsoft has ditched the previous front-running name and opted for a simpler, more memorable alternative, and indeed, one which 'unambiguously says search' - but in rather an annoying fashion! The question is, will Microsoft Bing be the Search Engine to challenge Google?

There is no doubt that launching a new Search facility in today's online environment is a risky business. For one, not only is Google dominating - with an estimated market share of 61% (something which will be incredibly difficult to breakdown), but it is clear to many that we are in somewhat of a transitional period, with both the introduction of real-time search and the concept of semantic search being thrown around. Whilst Twitter has already, quite successfully introduced real-time facilities to it's service, no search engine has yet looked to them and built upon their breakthrough, as much as one might expect. Sure, Google has introduced the 'More Options' facility to its SERPs, allowing users to define a time-period for their search, but this is some-way from being genuinely real-time. It is clear that real-time is the next logical step (after all, we talk about it enough on our blog!), which has the whole search environment waiting eagerly in anticipation. With this said, I do believe that it is quite possible that the first dedicated search engine to offer such facilities, will go on to dominate the environment for some years to come.

Microsoft has had an opportunity to do this, yet whilst Bing shows glimpses of Web 2.0 quality at times, when it comes down to it, it is far from offering real-time search. Microsoft will need to go even further, spending even more on marketing this service in order to break Google down as they're offering little in the way of an incentive, pushing very few boundaries. The boundaries which they are pushing seem to be taking Bing down somewhat of a different route than expected, with their service being dubbed as a 'Decision Engine' as opposed to a strict, Search Engine.

The idea of the Decision Engine looks to facilitate the entire process of search, meaning users are kept onsite for longer spells and are offered services (from shopping, to travel deals) via the actual Bing pages as opposed to having visitors leave the site, only to have to return should the results be inappropriate. According to Microsoft research, this is what was missing in the search environment. Whether you agree with this or not, I can't help but wonder whether Microsoft should have invested the money into developing their real-time facility rather than developing an alternative to the traditional Search Engine.

Bing is set to roll out worldwide by Wednesday, and we can't wait to see how the Internet Marketing world takes to this new addition!

Author - Tom

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