Is Bing Superior To Google in Search Quality?

[seoskunk]

I was following the thread on google new updates and was wondering if google has over complicated its algo now with many people complaining of poor results

I don't see the same remarks about bing though. Has bing become superior to google but kinda like Star Trek the Next Generation was better than Star Trek Google continues to dominate because it was there first

[Marshall]

Has bing become superior to google

IMHO - YES!

Marshall

[Whitey]

Probably not in terms of technology, but in terms of it's simplicity yes and ease of use "yes".

Google pays too much attention to it's own assets and neglects organic search as a minority component in it's landing page design. Search is it's core product offering. It is in danger of morphing into another Yahoo if it's not careful, being "Jack of all trades - master of none" in the results, and user perception of quality could backfire.

Can Bing turn that into brand reputation to give a level playing field ? Difficult i think.

But are Google's search results better than Bing - probably, when you can see and compare them. That's the key issue for me - they are frequently not prominent and often merged with paid ads, which users cannot easily distinguish from.

[Aoe2913]

With Bing you at least have some normal expectations, with hard work, what your rankings will be over time. And some assurance, like how the real works (planning for expansion etc.), knowing that you won't be out of business tomorrow if you break an arbitrary rule that the competition doesn't abide by in the first place. And some comfort in knowing that they aren’t out to compete with you whenever you invent something new. Hey, maybe they’ll even support you by sending some traffic.

This is in contrast to this Hot Mess called Google Search. All I know is I wouldn’t graduate if I wrote something as sloppy as that sloppy joe. It definitely doesn't leave a good taste in your mouth. O well, Time to rewrite the cook book.

[AndyA]

I've been using Bing for well over a year, and I like the results. The SERPs are clean and not cluttered with ads. There's too much drama with Google, and the SERPs aren't consistent.

[Web_speed]

I found Bing to do the job right in 95% of cases. For the other 5% of searches i use ask, duckduckgo and a couple more engines.

Google is history as far as I'm concerned. I choose NOT to use their "search engine" or any of the "services" they may offer. I no longer like or trust this company! and advise every person i talk to, to do the same.

[edited by: Web_speed at 3:43 am (utc) on Apr 23, 2012]

[garyr_h]

Consistence, I think, is something search engines lack these days.

I have heard others talk about their clients not wanting business cards because the clients state "you are so easy to find in search engines, I don't need it!"

I can just imagine those clients not being able to find the business once again and the business itself losing customers because what was once consistent is now not.

[ken_b]

Superior is probably a pretty subjective status.

Bing/hoo is good enough for 90 - 95% of my searches, they are my starting place. Occasionally I have to go back to G, doesn't always help.

But G still provides the bulk of the organic search traffic that shows up at my site.

To some degree it doesn't matter which is superior, which people use most matters more.

.

[arikgub]

G is still better for long tail searches.

Unfortunately. Because that's the only reason to come back to Google's Search. Bing's experience is much better now, especially after the introduction of "Plus". At least, I don't have to read what some dumb girl from Ohio that I've never met has to say about the things I am searching for.

[santapaws]

but does she have a nice photo?

[HuskyPup]

I found Bing to do the job right in 95% of cases. For the other 5% of searches i use ask, duckduckgo and a couple more engines.

Google is history as far as I'm concerned. I choose NOT to use their "search engine" or any of the "services" they may offer. I no longer like or trust this company! and advise every person i talk to, to do the same.

Do I have two personas here? That's precisely what I was going to write.

Interestingly Joe Public seems to be noticing the decline in Google's search. I was having some beer with some guys last night, all very highly paid renwable energy techies from an Anglo/American/German company, and somehow the conversation came around to the WWW etc with one of them complaining he couldn't find anything on Google these days.

Immediately they all agreed about just how bad and frustrating it had become and, surprisingly, how many of them simply hated Yahoo!...I kept quiet however one of my best friends asked me, "What do you use?" I replied Bing and one of them said, "Oh the ad that's running on TV at the moment, I thought that was just another MS ad for something, I didn't realise it was a search engine!"

I suspect there may be some new Bing users today!

[creative craig]

I recently made the switch to Bing (about 6 weeks ago) and have not looked back.

I only use Google when a client asks about rankings etc...

[Pjman]

Rants aside. Bing's results are better on average ever since Google got away from rank pages and instead ranking sites and then pages.

But I think G knows this and they are just trying to keep you on there site to increase their bottom line. Blame Larry Page's leadership, that's when it changed. They are living off of the cultural aspect of their company. People don't search they "Google it!"

I have to say Google.HK results are better than Bing's.

[agent_x]

A couple of months back, Techradar did a review of the top 12 free video encoders. I read the review, then a couple of weeks later wanted to read it again. But I hadn't bookmarked it and couldn't remember what site I'd read it on, only that it was a review of the best 12. Would Google find it for me? No, no matter what I typed as the query it refused to show me a link to the article.

Bing had it in the first five results.

[Robert Charlton]

In the case of the video encoders cited above, neither Bing nor Google returns the review with the search terms mentioned.

The article is about "converters," though, and if you change the query from "encoders" to "converters", both engines now return the review as the top result. Can't say what they did a couple of months ago, but in general Google indexes content faster than Bing does.

Mods note: Let's try to keep specific search terms and sites out of this as much as possible.

[reseller]

I have to say Google.HK results are better than Bing's.

I totally agree with you!

[LostOne]

Been using Bing for four months or so. Hey, no search engine is perfect. Granted I was bit by Panda, hung in there with Goog search, but grew tired of it because I am not ALWAYS trying to buy something or looking for a local source. I also don't need generic advice from a big brand as they rarely provide what I'm looking for.

If you can get past the fluff Ehow listings on Bing, the older more in depth sites are there. Remember? The ones that existed before adsense and offer genuine information from folks that have a true desire to offer their knowledge. They may not be web 2.0 design but they work!

It's hard to say whether or not Joe Public can ween themselves from Google. I suppose most people are satisfied with average, so called popular (big brand) websites.

[dhaliwal]

on one new website, we are getting more traffic from Bing, compared to Google

[agent_x]

In the case of the video encoders cited above, neither Bing nor Google returns the review with the search terms mentioned.

I remember trying many different search terms, as many as I could think of, and couldn't find it on Google. This isn't the only such experience I've had searching for things on Google, just the most memorable.

[jkdt0077]

I remember trying many different search terms, as many as I could think of, and couldn't find it on Google. This isn't the only such experience I've had searching for things on Google, just the most memorable.

Are you sure it wasn't top 12 free video converters? I can't find anything, anywhere for encoders but converters comes up #1 and #2 in Google, but nowhere in Bing.

[Ummon]

Absolutely, Bing I have noticed gives far superior results since Panda.

[Pjman]

I have no idea why Big Name Media doesn't ask the same question and run a test?

I mean they tracked down the autobody shop owner down the street because they over charged Mrs. Smith, every Tuesday.

The media machines that shape our culture are free of this type of scrutiny. I'm sure CNN and NYT just don't want to P*ss off BIG G!

[setzer]

Bing is fine, but traffic-wise, it's a joke. I have an authority site that barely scrapes 200 visits a day from Bing. G traffic is around 10,000 a day.

[MrFlicks]

Google has got a lot worse in some searches due to the geo thing especially for map places and "Find Geo Service" searches which basically push circa 7 natural search results under the map links.

Bing image search is still pants though and hardly ever updates in my experience. Text search though if Bing could somehow address the exact match thing which gives domains with the same phrase as the search precedence they would win hands down on normal search.

Both Google and Bing seem to me to be a bit stuck RE exact match domain names - hence why the counterfeiters had such an easy time over in the US... <re counterfeit widgets reported elsewhere>.

It's no wonder not much traffic comes from Bing for most though as take the UK for example G has circa 87 to 92% or there about market dominance for search last figures I read. I know people who have never heard of Bing

[edited by: Robert_Charlton at 1:21 am (utc) on Apr 24, 2012]
[edit reason] removed specifics [/edit]

[Sgt_Kickaxe]

Has bing become superior to google

IMHO - YES!

Marshall

In terms of search results Absolutely YES!

Over the past year my niche now offers more irrelevant results than ever before. Brand names are particularly ugly.

example: when I look up xbrand widgets only 6-8 results will be about xbrand widgets and the other 2-4 will be about xbrand pianos because xbrand makes those too. I want WIDGETS like I specifically asked for Google, not PIANOS. Sorry, you very apparently don't know what I want before I ask for it anymore, if you ever did.

Big brands also dominate but in this niche people do NOT want the yellow pages repeated because the big brand sites don't cover what they are looking for. The big brand sites look to sell stuff and they don't provide informational content per se.

That's not a problem, in my niche, on Bing.

[Sally Stitts]

A few weeks back, I wanted to check on a patent of mine.

Google couldn't find it.
Bing had it #1, #2 and #3, from 3 different sources, EACH with a detailed description.

That's my answer to this question.
.

[garyr_h]

@setzer, I don't think that has to do with Bing not getting traffic, it's that your site isn't optimized for Bing. In the US, Bing/Yahoo get around 30% or more searches.

[Wlauzon]

Looking at the last 120 days on our ecommerce site, Google has been losing out slightly to Bing over the past few weeks. It is not a lot - going from approx an 88/12 split to a 86/14 split. That is based on total revenue, not hits. The revenue per visitor though is slightly better with Google.

Bottom line is that we are paying more attention to Bing now, and have also upped our ad budget a small amount on Bing in the past couple of days.