In a cheeky nod to the 1980s, Bing has initiated its very only Pepsi Challenge-esque blind taste test – Bing it On.

Bing it On prompts users to enter search terms in an elegantly designed page and asks users to choose which SERPs they like the best in five rounds.

The results may be completely antidotal, but Bing doesn’t think so. Bing says that users are choosing their results over Google’s two-to-one. That’s a powerful claim, but not one that can be independently verified.

What this does prove, if anything, is that Bing has upped its game. Its SERPs are no longer as visual as they once were. Instead, they’re giving people more of what they want – information – with an algorithm that seems to put variety first, and influence second.

What this means for marketers is that, more and more, search is segmented. While Google is still the leader, Bing is making an effort to bring more eyeballs its way – an effort that, if these search stats are any indication, will probably pay off over time.

It’s also a good reminder that, while those of us in the tech world may be Google-centric, the rest of the world may not be. And if you still want to be relevant to the rest of the world, it’s time to start taking Bing seriously.

In a divisive battle between Google and Bing, the two search giants have both made incredible strides in search quality over the past few years. Although Google has held a vast majority of the market share for quite some time, Bing is determined to change search engine user perspectives and garner a bigger piece of the pie. This competition is becoming exceedingly beneficial to business owners with a strong web presence. As the search landscape grows, it is of the utmost importance not to commit your attention to Google alone.

Bing has become so incredibly confident in the quality of their search engine that they have even launched an online challenge with Google. This challenge titled Bing It On was introduced by Bing on September 6th and gives users the ability to perform a search while obtaining results by both Google and Bing in a side by side comparison. Many people might remember a similar test called the Pepsi challenge. Most elements which could identify the search engines has been stripped and allows for a truly blind comparison. After each search the user is asked to choose which results page was more helpful. After 5 searches the users is informed of which search engine they preferred or if there was a draw.

Although this challenge will certainly not give Bing a major boost in search engine market share overnight, it may greatly help their reputation. There is no doubt that Bing is more of a major player than ever. Microsoft’s director of Bing Stefan Weitz was even quoted as saying “if you strip the brands off and show people the results side by side we knew we’d win.”
The table below shows the most recent search share results from comScore. Although Bing is clearly lagging behind Google, they are making strides to catch up.

This will be a long and arduous fight for search engine dominance, but users and business owners can benefit greatly in the meantime. The increase in search quality by both engines will highlight companies that adhere to strict SEO best practices standards and grow their web foot print. If you publish unique and quality content, maintain a search engine friendly site, and abide by SEO best practices then a Bing resurgence can be a great traffic driver for your website.

In 2010, Yahoo announced that its organic search results would be powered by Bing which led to many Yahoo properties being discontinued. So, as expected, on November 21st, Yahoo officially took down its free, search analysis tool, “Site Explorer”. What does this mean for Webmasters? Even though the data has been integrated into Bing Webmaster Tools, it seems evident that any type of robust (and free) online tool for checking things like backlinks is gone forever. There are, of course, a plethora of third party tools, but those tools are compiling an aggregate of a multitude of different platforms, and are not a true reflection of the “true” backlink data that a specific search engine has.

Bing Webmaster Tools has made some effective improvements over the last several months and the verified webmaster for a website will now be able to get even more comprehensive data. Bing Webmaster Tools will likely show an increased number of backlinks being reported for a website, as well as provide a central location for both Yahoo and Bing data.

However, many SEO’ers, including myself, will miss the practicality of the old Site Explorer. Site Explorer was the only free, public database from a major search engine that gave you an easy way to look at the amounts of backlinks to a specific page. While privacy was a concern, making certain information public inspired other webmasters to improve their own inbound link building techniques as well as making it easy for the more novice webmaster to take a quick glance at a competitor’s website for inbound link ideas, thus inspiring innovation in the world of SEO.