Why is Bing here?

Nydia Davis - June 9, 2009

On May 28, 2009 Microsoft Ad Network unveiled Bing. Bing is a new decision engine and consumer brand that is set to provide searchers with the initial step in moving beyond search to help make quicker decisions while online (hence decision making engine). Bing was designed to do more than what current search engines do. Instead of having to click through a listing to see a website, Bing goes to the next step by providing a summary of a website with a preview tool. This enables users to quickly decide which website matches their query by eliminating clicks in and out of different sites. The user experience and instinctive tools were intended to help consumers make better and faster decisions and focuses on four major areas: making a purchase decision, planning a trip, researching a health condition or finding a local business.

Bing is here to help users easily navigate through the overload of information on the web. Part of Microsoft’s study that helped the creation of Bing included results from a custom comScore Inc. study across core search engines which shows that as many as 30 percent of searches are abandoned without a satisfactory result. The data also indicated that approximately two-thirds of the remaining searches required a refinement or re-query on the search results page.

As Microsoft began building Bing, they kept in mind an understanding of how people really want to use the Web. Bing is Microsoft’s first step toward an effort to bring advancements in search that enables people to find information swiftly and use the information they’ve found to accomplish tasks and make smarter decisions. If you are already a Microsoft Ad Network customer, your ads are being exposed to the searchers of Bing. So depending on your product, you may want to modify your existing ads and make sure that you have strong, straight to the point call to actions for an engine that promotes quick decisions.