Do we choose Google over Bing just out of habit? [ Google vs Bing ]

If you are not on Google then you are not on the internet is a statement which is not very far from the truth. We had Yahoo Search, MSN search and then came the underdog called Google which swept all competition with a simple interface and made being geek so cool that everyone wanted to “Google” something and felt like a geek if only for a few moments. But lately Google has competition and it goes by the name “Bing”

I always felt I do not use Bing just out of sheer habit of using Google but I thought it would be make an interesting discussion and so yesterday I put a question to some bloggers on my Facebook account which was “Are we using Google instead of Bing just out of habit?”

Most replied “They were habituated to Google” and some did not like Bing Search layout too much. I thought let me conduct some comparative tests by searching for a list of similar things on both Google and Bing and try to come to a conclusion if Bing is as good if not better than Google.

Do not take the scoring seriously as this is just a snap shot of 3 queries of the billions that these search engines handle everyday but they do make for some interesting insights into the two search engines.

Search results for “Devils Workshop”

Google results

Bing Results

• I admit that this search query was a little too obvious as I do not think someone will search for Devils Workshop but I decided to check this one out for the basic layout and how search results are presented.
• Google which we are all so familiar with showed me easy one click access to relative searches like Images, Blogs, Videos on the side. It showed out blog first and then a Wikipedia link which is how Bing showed it.
• Only issue with Bing was that Google showed up some links from our domain but that was not the case with Bing.
• Bing also had two very unrelated links at the top which were sponsored links.

Score: Google 1 : Bing 0

Search results for “Fifa Scores”

Google Results

Bing Results

Fifa World Cup 2010 is currently underway and I wondered if we looked up search results how will both the search engines show up the results.

• This one was a tie with Bing and Google both showed the latest scores and also the live score of the current match that was happening.
• This reinforces my view that if we took design and function out of the question probably Bing gives just as good results as Google.

Score: Google 2 : Bing 1

Search Results for Addresses

Google Results

Bing Results

Other than using search engines for news, software and blogging related info I also use is extensively to look up addresses and here Google wins hands down.

• Google showed results immediately with a snap shot of Google Maps which was more about the address.
• Bing Maps is similar to Google Maps but here Bing Maps is not integrated with its search results and that I feel is disappointing. Also the links in Bing show everything except a link to its Maps section which I find strange.

Score: Google 3 : Bing 1

Conclusion:

Google is far ahead of Bing at the moment and with Google being the default search engine with Firefox and Chrome which is currently seeing strong growth rates at the expense of Internet Explorer will ensure Google will be used much more. Also Bing just does not have the small details which Google search provides and this might be fixed when Bing is out of beta stage. One feature of Bing I really liked is that with Bing we can create RSS feeds of our search results.

So my question to you is do you use Google over Bing just out of habit or do are there any specific reasons? Do drop in your comments.