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. 🙂
18 Comments
You’re very much true Aditya, truly saying I’ve never used Bing to search anything, yea I often use it to see how my posts rank on it. 😛
Why should we use Bing, if Google is giving away better service than it.
I do not think Google gives better service as such. But the layout is pretty much better than bing. It is more organized and gives a lot of choices. Bing has to learn that.
A very well laid out comparison. Although, I am also habituated to Google its more so because of the numerous services that have been integrated together.
Gmail , Analytics, Reader and Google. So, it comes automatically still your analysis was very objective and I liked the presentation.
Thanks. I agree with you to an extent, Gmail, Reader, Docs does make Google search just a natural choice.
Hey Aditya, Very nice topic, I must say. The Answer is ‘Yes’ but Google its not only because of habit, Google, right now, is much better than bing in terms of search results.
Bing has sometimes come up with better results than Google but only in specific categories.
Hi you had choosen very nice topic , I use just not becuase of habit , Google gives better result then bing .
Nice1… 🙂
when i was using Govt laptop there was linux operating system& search engien was firefox it was not at all comfortable then I switched over to my personal laptop @ window 7 with Bing but when i start working with google i find it is most comfortable search engie4nh
Wow.. that was a nice comparison. I was always a Google fan & so happy to see these results
Good comparison. Actually i dont know why i use google. When i think about search, just google comes to mind.
There isn’t any Bing Translate. At least Bing doesn’t take me to it.
Yes, good point. Another thing Bing does not have.
Bing keeps changing its name that no one will ever be able to call it by a proper name. So you dont see people using the word “bing ” so often as google.
I hate bing because of its design (page). Yahoo is better than that.
Its common when ever something pops in ur mind,first thing you
do is to Google that,only guys with thinking”lets see what it
shows”use Bing,Google shows more relevant results than Bing
then why to use other search engine to spend more time to search
what you are looking 4,every thing is compared and good one is
used because very few tries to look at or deal with rest of the things.
You have a point. By they would really appreciate if your used your First name instead of the website name. The link can be seen anyways to other comment readers.
oh Sorry writer,next time i will put my name.