Does anyone really use bing

Below the traditional search and the retrograde Fun , Bing places an infinite scroll of news stories. It felt less like a curated news selection—algorithmically or otherwise—and more like an Outbrain fever dream.

Initially, I wondered if that was because I had no search history with Bing, and it responded to a blank canvas by splattering whatever paint was nearest at hand. But familiarity did not breed success.

A mid-July check-in yielded the following:. And so on. A Microsoft spokesperson says Bing deploys a combination of "algorithm signals" and human editors, who take into account both live search activity and real-time news events.

Which reveals less about how the features work than what purpose they serve. Bing appears to want, both on desktop and in its app, to be not just a search engine but a portal. Bing wants to be a destination, but search is a thruway. Spending even a second longer than necessary there is like getting on the New Jersey Turnpike to visit the Clara Barton rest stop. I tested them both out of due diligence, and they seem fine. Google obviously has an app as well, which also shoves weather and headlines underneath a search bar, and offers voice search.

But at least when I do, it knows enough about me, through years of my blindly handing over information and interests to Google, to serve up a tailored experience.

When in doubt, they lost. Maybe, given enough time and attention, Bing would have that same level of insight into my online psyche. And because it does some things that drive me nuts. Which is to say, if you want to find something online, Bing will almost certainly get the job done. Would you have found it faster on Google? Would another search engine show you the perfect link first instead of fifth?

For the bulk of my Bing expatriation, I avoided Google entirely, but I switched to Google on mobile toward the end. I've stuck with Bing on desktop. In some ways, I actually preferred the way Bing coughed things up. Anecdotally, it feels less burdened with ads. Bing does do this occasionally, with the kind of mixed results seen below. Bing can be a little slow on the uptake.

A few months later, that same search yields better results. Bing does not always get you where you want to go, though. In fact, it keeps you locked into Bing in strange and frustrating ways. Take videos. Bing tells you it sourced them from YouTube, but when you click on one, it takes you to the video, playing on a weird Bing wrapper page.

Actually getting to YouTube requires another click from there. This is, again, not the end of the world. He also added that Microsoft was working to build a smarter search that would predict users' intentions, similar to Google Now. To mark the fifth birthday of Microsoft's search engine, we tracked down some Bing fans to ask them why they've been turned to the Microsoft side, what it offers that Google doesn't, and what they'd like to see improved.

Sometimes I can find what I'm looking for on the first page of Bing, whereas it might be on the second or third page of Google. It's also great for my Windows phone, I like seeing those great photographs as my lockscreen every day". Google is much greater in a lot of aspects compared to Bing. Although I feel Bing is catching up fast in terms of features.

Or even to sign in with social media accounts. But following that I did manually make it default on my PCs, laptops and tablet. On site and image search, the difference is negligible. On maps and local search Bing is far quicker and more accurate.

I was part of the 'Meh. Earlier this year, Microsoft announced that , advertisers serve ads on Bing through Microsoft Adverting. That reduced competition means significant perks for those who are using Microsoft Advertising. And managing Bing through Microsoft Advertising can be simple, too! In fact, you can simply import over your Google Ads campaigns to Microsoft Advertising to get started. As you make changes to your Google campaigns, you can even choose which changes you want to import over every day to Microsoft Advertising.

Home Blog. Who Uses Bing, Anyway? Last updated: November 19, Paid Search Marketing. Mark Irvine. Sign up to get our top tips and tricks weekly! Sign Me Up! Related Content. New Data!

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