back to article Microsoft tickles Bing with feather duster

Microsoft has given its Bing search engine a spring clean and added status data from geolocation outfit Foursquare into its maps service as an app. This is Redmond's first big upgrade to Bing since it debuted in June last year, when it replaced Microsoft's clunky old Live Search offering. Since then the company has been …

COMMENTS

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  1. Wibble

    Screenshots please

    Do us a favour and post some screen shots. It's a lot easier than visiting the site to do a Google for something.

  2. Quxy
    Thumb Down

    Credible "number two"?

    At the moment it's a VERY distant second in terms of the quality and quantity of results it returns for the sort of technical and academic searches I use a search engine for.

    I'll keep checking back every couple of months, but as long as Microsoft continues to focus on Web2.0rhea instead of search engine performance, it's never going to be a credible search engine.

    1. The Original Steve

      Depends on what your after

      Over the years google has become less and less "good" at giving me the results I want near the top.

      Now Bing isn't perfect either - not by a long shot - however there's nothing - for the results I want - to distinguish between them, and I prefer Bing's interface more than Google so opt for former.

      Still Google now and then, but Bing is my first port of call now. Great thing having some choice in the market - it's up to me! :-)

      1. Quxy

        "Mainstream" results only?

        Bing does do a good job of returning a small set of "mainstream" US-centric results. However, it suffers from overly-aggressive "relevance" filtering (e.g. it's reluctant to return non-English results, even though I've told it to search all languages) and hasn't (yet?) done a very thorough job of indexing the corners of the Internet (e.g. it comes up empty on the exact titles of technical papers I've found with Google).

  3. OffBeatMammal

    I use Bing to google the web

    I've been using Bing as my default choice when I want to google, sorry, search the intertubes for something.

    On the whole I find it to be much less spammy than the monolithic upstart - more of the results I get are for real content not rubbish re-post and serve some ads sites.

    annoyingly there seem to be a bunch of hard to discover options in queries to make Bing even better but MS are not very good at making them visible

  4. jackharrer

    Yeah

    >>The firm's Todd Schwartz said in a blog post that Microsoft carried out research on Bing usage and found that 42 per cent of sessions required search decision "refinements".

    Maybe they can refine that pesky stuff called "meaningful results"? So far Bing is just a waste of time. Maybe, sincerely very maybe, in the future they will wise up.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    WTF?

    Why does the US version look different?

    Is Blighty still on the old version?

    I get tabs down the side if I claim to be in the US, but the tabs are on the top for UK. Strange.

  6. spegru
    Gates Halo

    You know what?

    In spite of being an MSFT hater and linux user for around 8 yrs now I'm included to support Bing.

    Basically to make sure there is a real competition out there - support the underdog sort of thing.

    Heck MSFT were even talking about standards support in IE9 recently!

    1. Nick Stallman

      Ok

      Thats fine.

      Not sure why your using a spanner to hammer in a nail though.

      I use the best tool for the job rather than trying to bring politics in to it.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Badgers

    Bing

    Screw the results or the features...who came up with the name "Bing" anyway???

    'cos yeah...Bing really says "advanced search engine" to me.

    "Bing" always remins me of the mouth-breathing dopey kid at school with flappy ears, a permanent running nose, two odds socks and untied show laces. Not someone I'd trust to give me reliable information in the least.

    Of course, sods law being what it is, Bing is probably now a model & professional athlete, working part-time for CERN or some other boffin central with more letter after his name than the entire alphabet. Lets hope Microsoft's bing matures as well as him.

    Then again, Google's name ain't much better - at least it came out in the dotcom/bomb days when silly names were all the rage.

    I could probably launch my own search engine - it would be utter crap, but I'd have millions of visitors more than Bing 'cos I'd call it the "ultra-hyper-mega-search-o-matic-o-tron....4000".

    1. Hi Wreck
      Jobs Horns

      Bing...

      > Screw the results or the features...who came up with the name "Bing" anyway???

      Because Its Not Google???????

  8. MeRp

    I don't know what you're talking about...

    I like to bing a bunch more than I like to google. I bing at least once every single day. After I bing I always make sure it flushes completely and I always wash my hands. Being sanitary is important.

    1. Quxy
      Coat

      You must not be googling in the right places

      Mine's the one with the x-ray specs in the breast pocket.

    2. ed 8
      Thumb Up

      your right...

      Like they said, "credible number two"

  9. Tom Maddox Silver badge
    Coat

    Relevance

    I was going to do a comparison of such relevant search terms as "shitmantec," "lotus notes sucks," and "opera fanboy scat porn," but it turns out that Bing is not currently returning search results at all.

    Advantage: Google!

  10. James Boag
    Joke

    Sorry but

    Im Using the ultra-hyper-mega-search-o-matic-o-tron...6000 it's much better :)

  11. De Zeurkous
    Coat

    What about the...

    What about the wet celery and the flying helmet?

  12. Andrew Baines Silver badge
    Megaphone

    Duck Duck Go

    http://duckduckgo.com Give it a try - no tracking, good results. Just make sure you change your settings to UK as there is no co.uk site.

    Like google, but without the ads or the privacy issues. Anyway, anything is better than Bing!

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Gates Horns

    oooo

    Bing is still going then is it?

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