Search Engine or Decision Engine?

For years, Google has dominated the search engine category with its simple user-friendly approach centered around its catchy name, lots of white space and a simple fill-in-the-blank search box.   Google’s popularity has soared to such great heights that the accidental misspelling of their name is now recognized by dictionaries as a verb meaning “to use the Google search engine to obtain information on the Internet.”

Now comes Bing.  Introduced earlier this year at the All Things Digital conference, Microsoft unveiled its replacement for Live Search with a fresh new look to what they refer to as a “decision engine” that has everyone buzzing.   Bing’s recent partnership ann0uncement to power Yahoo’s search engine has fueled the buzz even more.

Bing combines a fresh graphic appeal with a photographic background that changes daily.  More importantly, Bing’s design offers suggestions in real time that navigate excess information to help you quickly make an informed decision.

Google’s biggest challenge from Bing may come from the launch of Windows 7.  Dave Methvin, with Information Week, points out in his article “No Surprise in Bing’s Coming Rise” that a bid war could escalate between Google and Bing for computer manufacturer’s Dell, HP and Lenovo to configure systems favoring their search engine as the default.

Compare the two engines and make your own decision by clicking the link below to take the Google vs. Bing “search challenge.”

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Information Week – “No Surprise in Bing’s Coming Rise”

User Behavior Influences Search Results

Interesting article from Kim Krause Berg at Search Engine Land on the importance of understanding the behavior of search engine users.  The article centers around research studies conducted by David Robins of Lousiana State University on Shifts of Focus in Information Retrieval Interaction and a joint study from Jim Jansen and and Danielle Booth from Penn State University entitled If At First You Don’t Succeed, Let the Search Engine Try.

All provide solid insights into the importance of understanding how search engine users formulate their thought process prior to and during their respective searches.  Key elements that all marketers must continue to embrace in order to better tag and identify key words for search engine optimization of their respective products and brands.

Click here to read the full article.