Comments on: Bing off to solid start, but not that good

A Web market share company claiming Microsoft's Bing search engine passed Yahoo Search this week appears to be an outlier compared with other observers and CNET's own data.

[myles taylor]

2%! And how much did they spend? I wonder how that looks on a balance sheet. How much does Microsoft pour into these things. I like that there is competition, but if I was a Microsoft shareholder, I'd want them to stick to the things that make money, not the black holes that take money but never put any back in.

(goes to hunt down Microsoft's balance sheets)

[JasonCe]

"I'd want them to stick to the things that make money, not the black holes that take money but never put any back in."

How much money do you think YouTube makes? Zero. YouTube costs Google huge amounts of money every year.
How much money do you think Twitter makes? What about Facebook? Google Docs? Hulu? Sony PS3? Zero. Nada. They never made any money.

According to your logic, Google should shut down YouTube and Docs. Facebook and Twitter should quit. Sony should abandon their gaming console business.

Microsoft is doing the right thing by investing in a very profitable product. And they are getting better with every release. Bing works great and is by far the most credible competitor to Google. So they should keep investing in it even if they did not make a single dime yet.

I am very impressed with Bing's results, it works great. I don't think anybody can distinguish between Bing vs Google in a blind test.

[empirestatebuddy]

I agree with JasonCe. There's such a double standard when it comes to Microsoft. If Microsoft enters a new market, it's called "predatory"; but if Google, Apple, Linux or Mozilla enter a new market, it's hailed as salvation. It's all just very ridiculous. The reality is that Google, Apple and just about everyone else DREAM about being like Microsoft... and that's just a fact... and it's a good thing... for all of us. That's CAPTIALISM, folks! Some of you need to take off your fanboy glasses and accept that Bing, while not perfect, is better than Google in some ways... and in the ways it's not, I'm sending Microsoft regular feedback on how to make it better.

[jabberwolf]

Can we please get the MS haters, that have NO fricken experience with computers other then sitting on their ***** making blind speculations?

FOR $#$@ sake, its just opened and has 2 percent of the market?
Isnt that like 10s of millions already switching?
And thats in, what, 1 or 2 days??

Oops, is that math at work? Is that too difficult to calculate for this article, REALLY?!!

Ok now back to the comment, Google built an industry out of just a search engine. Now imagine if they lost half of that, which they could do with MS live,live mail, Bing, their sync groove, MS zune library and messenger all combined to be mobile where ever you go.

Google has sucked at it, Apple definately has sucked at it.
But MS is the only one that has all the pieces now to put together that "just work".

And MS is the only one a business will trust to have everything combined and not go down for 40 minutes a day, or couple of days, or not having a an entertainment center that really works coherently.

Bing, would just be a feather in MS's cap and a huge shark bite out of Google ( to put them in their cocky place).
I love competition, and everyone should appreciate it. If it demises another company (legally and not with wailing bs cries of "no fair"), so be it. This is business and I'm glad MS is finally getting down to it.

[jabberwolf]

Google trying anything to dis BING

Their latest "front page link"
was from a single anonymous blogger, unable to search "sex" from India.
AHAHAAaaa....

Ok with this desperation, yes apparently Bing is hurting Google!

[JCPayne]

Bing will have Bung by the end of the summer. Live.com all over again... Notice though. LIVE spelled backwards EVIL.....

[Random_Walk]

@JasonCe:

First you list all these Internet enterprises (YouTube, Hulu, et al) and describe how they're not making a dime of money... then you point to Bing (which is also not turning a profit at this time), and claim it to be "a very profitable product".

So far, Bing hasn't really done much of anything at all, except take market share from MSN and Live (which are also Microsoft properties).

So, do tell... where is this profit that you see?

[menon.nrk]

The day it was released with media hype we used the www.bing.com search engine. Looks are attractive, but search results are no better than Google and Yahoo. Has Microsoft invested millions only to be called an Also Ran? I can't believe it.

[empirestatebuddy]

That sounds like wishful thinking. Bing has only been out for a few days and has gotten glowing reviews and the $80 million media blitz has just begun. If Google is as great as everyone says it is, then clever advertising won't make Bing a success. But, if there's a need for more than what Google is offering, and Bing satisfies some of those needs, then Bing will gain some market share (though it's too early to predict just how much).

[timber2005]

If the results are similar to Google/Yahoo/whatever.... that means you're getting what you searched!

If you search Cnet, I would expect that Google, Yahoo, Bing all return the same thing.

[ofmyony]

I plan on using Bing because I like it better. I want Google to offer a more enjoyable search experience. I am tired of looking at blue links all day. I want multimedia and color and easy to find content and Bing is the best right now.

[tm_anon]

Funny thing is, I just did a basic search with Bing, they have blue links too. If you do an image search, Google has images, if you do a vid search, Google has vids. Not seeing your point with that comment.

Bings search box looks like Yahoo!s but they play vid clips in the search results. Not seeing anything compelling there.

[Daral0085]

@tm_anon: try searching for a product of some sort, audi a4, transformers, etc. You will find a much richer experience on Bing than on Google.

[tm_anon]

@Daral0085

When searching for a product, why would I not go to Amazon or ebay or one of the other online stores which actually sells that product?

After all, if I'm going to be looking, I'd like to know what the price is, what deals I can get, what the reviews are on that product. In other words, all the information I can get from the online stores.

Google does a great job at finding sites specializing in comparing products. That's what I need a search engine to do, find me sites with differing views.

[massfat]

@tm_anon, if you actually did follow through and searched for products, you'd realize that Bing does all of that, and much more. Google gets you the sites that have the data, whereas Bing does that, and also gives you info, reviews, ratings, and that stuff right on Bing.

also don't forget that for millions of users, bing was made the default search engine and/or home page without people's consent. (in fact it happened to my missus, not me cause personally i prefer use chrome, but if i was to load up IE, chances are it would be the default too).

Given that, and the fact the bulk of the world still uses internet explorer in various incarnations, i have to admit i'm somewhat surprised it didn't have a bigger market share than 10%

However, having used bing, I do have to admit is is a good search engine, with some neat features and pretty interface. It does beat Google and yahoo in some areas and not in others. All round it is a decent release. needs improvement but there is always room for improvement (even google and yahoo can improve heh)

ill still stick with google though becuase its central to my online life because i use gMail, gDocs, gCal, gReader etc etc

[Apacheking]

'Happened to my Missus?'....Dang do we allow hicks on CNET now?

[timber2005]

That happened on IE6 only... so, you have a computer running IE6??

[hapticz]

choice is key, take your pick, default options can be altered (usually), and, i dont need 99 percent of what is on the 'net' to live anyway, just make yourself comfortable.

[massfat]

WHY DO YOU PEOPLE STILL USE IE 6??? SWITCH TO IE 8 PLEASE. THERE ARE TOO MANY IE 6 USERS AND WE CAN'T DESIGN OUR WEB PAGES PROPERLY THANKS TO THAT BS (Don't get me started on IE 5...).

Stop using IE 6. Make the WWW a better place.

[greatannoyance]

Happened to my IE8. At least I use Firefox instead.

[YankeePoodle]

Prediction: Bing will achieve 20% market share by June 2010.

[tm_anon]

Prediction: Yet another person will make a prediction about Bing.

[t8]

Prediction: Bing will achieve 20% decline in market share by June 2010.

[massfat]

Prediction: I'll have to Bing that first before I come to a conclusion and estimate.

[eltoro2827]

Bing rocks. bye google.

[Super2online]

Hey CNET, Bing isn't Kumo anymore, do you think it might be possible to include a screen shot that's actually current. I mean, you guys are supposed to be the up to the minute experts right?

[Rolker]

You forget that for Cnet, MS is always at beta.

[pentest]

Bung is the ultimate anonymizer. It will crash and burn because of that and the fact that its results suck.

[lonestarState]

Bing is pretty cool, seems some sites uing the Bing API need to update the use of BIng instead of Live. BuildaSearch.com is such a site, need to email them change the search to "Bing" instead of "Live".

[queticomn]

I will decide whats good and not for myself Tom Krazit kTnhx. At this point i like their results i receive from Bing. Im migrating Bing, Yahoo and ask for my providers. Not to mention i like the shopping discount Bing offers.

[t8]

Hi this is Steve Ballmer. Thank you for your comment MS shill. Please come to One Microsoft Way to pick up your pay.

[LinuxID10T]

Quite frankly, there is nothing new to Bing; same crappy ads on the side of my netbook's screen that is quite annoying, same crappy search results, and same crappy Microsoft. Google is winning the search market because, simply, it is the best. The search results are superior and with YouTube under its belt, video results are great! Why would I want to trade in better for worse?!? The same thing will happen when Microsoft launched Live, for a few days it actually might get some usage, however it will fail in the long run because it sucks. Sometimes less is more, and with Google it is correct. Bing and Yahoo have similar FLASHY interfaces, which look cool to begin with, but ultimately fail to get the job done. That said, the status quo will remain the same and Google will reign king.

[opiapr]

"annoying ads" So you are one of those that want everything for free but demanded ad free too. Ridicules when you get charged per email, per news article, for blogging, even for searching you will be crying for those so annoying ads.

[HuskyFromSiberia]

But even Microsoft has said that its basic goal for Bing over the next year is to pick up 2 percentage points of share, which unless Yahoo goes completely dark will still leave it solidly in third place behind Google and Yahoo.
======

Oh, yes. Let's watch Google saying "our basic goal for Chrome over the next year is to pick up 2 percentage points of share".

And that will put Chrome solidly in third place?

Wahahahaha.

[massfat]

Search for MSFT is barely 5% of their total business. Search for Google is pretty much all it has going for it.
Search for Yahoo is maybe 50% of their business.

If the other engines lose 2% of their share, maybe that's indicative of a new trend. If they lose in search, they're pretty much gone.

Of course, that's assuming Bing can actually get 2% more share and/or win the battle.

[franglais--2008]

Once bing has more sites indexed, I'll try using it. I like its home page WAY more fun than google's; the little "mystery spots" you can mouse over, the "popular now" links, and the Silverlight feature. But for now, I'll have to stick to google for searches.
It simply REFUSES to find my ANYTHING about my wife, who's a well known film maker here in France.
I google her name, or one of her films, and she's all over the place.
With Bing, nada thing.

[t8]

Try this site then.

It has better pics than Bing, and you get Google results.

http://www.stunningsearch.com/

[gorgeclimber]

While stunningsearch has neat pix, it does not offer the breadth of capabilities that either google or bing offer. Bing has a lot of offer. Now Google just needs to change their browser, Chrome, so that it accepts Bing as a default search engine.

[NickH]

@franglais

I'm looking into this aspect of search performance. I would really like to know an example of one or two of these film titles, that return Google results, but not Bing (and others). I'm trying to understand why this can be the case.

Thanks for sharing.

[Fatesrider]

I noticed that the default search engine for IE went from Live to Bling pretty much overnight. Considering its in every Microsoft OS computer, I'm not entirely sure 2% is considered a good number. It seems to be more of an indication of how many people change the default search toolbar for IE.

I don't hate Microsoft. But they so dropped the 'exploit the Internet' ball and have been looking for it ever since. Their fumbling attempts to be relevant in a medium they tried to monopolize are pretty hysterical. I saw their commercial yesterday. It was virtually unwatchable. They tried to be hip and trendy but give you so many fast scene cuts, they end up inducing seizures in epileptics. If their advertising agency stops mainlining speedballs, they may come up with something presentable. But from the current 80 million dollar campaign commercial, I got nothing. Actually I got less than nothing.

And that pretty much describes what I got from Bing as well. If I want to find something, I use Google. If I want a laugh, I use Bing. But I won't ever take it seriously.

[igal_alkon]

BING IS ****. Microsoft should start focus on things they barely good at instead on stuff they bad at.

[shellcodes_coder]

Bing is great!

[JigenIII]

Am I suppose to say "Bing it" the same way I say "Google it"?

[t8]

Why use Bing? Google isn't broken.

People only change when something breaks, or is considerably better to bother changing.

Neither is the case, so I can't see Bing changing anything.

[monkeyfun14]

If everyone had that mindset we'd still be driving model t's

[t8]

What I said still stands. It is the way people are.

[opiapr]

The key here is innovation. And for innovation to occur their need to be competition. If no one compete against google you will have the same google 10 years from now. So I welcome Bing. I use safari on my mac and switched the default search to bing. On my pc I use chrome and use google for search the only one out is yahoo...

[tm_anon]

Funny, Bings search looks an awful lot like Yahoo search, both are cluttered. Google, even with ads, isn't cluttered.

The only reason I've tried Bing searches in the past week is;
1)To laugh at how easy they've made it for kids to watch porn.
2)To see if the results were better than or equal to Google (neither was the case).

[monkeyfun14]

@tm_anon


It's not any harder to watch porn using any other search engine

[Search Box] Type sexual term here [Search Box]

Porn will come up

[cloudskye]

I got a good laugh from the poster that said You Tube, Facebook, Hulu, etc... make no money. All of these companies provide awesome free services AND make tons of freaking money off of advertising!! I'm talking TONS on money off of Advertising... silly rabbit.

[UrgentMatter]

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=youtube+to+loose+$470&btnG=Google+Search&meta=&aq=f&oq=

YouTube does not currently make any money and instead is loosing it. I would imagine Hulu is similar. Twitter and Facebook may have large audiences but they still have no great way of turning that into cash.

[massfat]

Those companies you mention are all losing money (but I'm not sure about Hulu, they MIGHT be making money, but if so, it's not much).
YouTube and Facebook lose a lot of money per year. YouTube has advertising potential, but it's not nearly enough to get them into the black. As for FaceBook, they've only just started to advertise, and it's nowhere near making profit.
Twitter has currently no means of making profit.

If you are an investor, then I suggest you contact some of these companies personally to make sure you are getting the right information. Or you can ask for the 10 year reports from Google to check up on YouTube.