Bing For A Month - a Bingathon.

[httpwebwitch]

I realize I haven't been giving the new kid fair time in my browser. I've been typing g o o... to search for so long and so often, my fingers do it without thinking. Well, I don't like doing things without thinking, and I've been thinking, why not see what it would be like to try Bing for a month?

The times I've used Bing, it seems pretty good. But really how good is it?

So,
For the entire month of December, I will do all my searching at Bing.
How will this change my search habits, and my experience of the web?
Will I find what I need to find?

Anyone want to join me for a month-long Bingathon?

This is NOT a sponsored endorsement of Bing. Honest. Microsoft does not own me

[johnnie]

I also miss typo-suggestions in bing

[Swanny007]

So far so good. The only time I go back to G is to check my rankings for some keywords. Otherwise "my" searches are all on Bing. I haven't noticed any big differences in terms of the results, I usually find what I need on the first page.

I do like the preview snippets in Bing, I don't have to click the link to preview the text. It's nice!

[pageoneresults]

I'm going to fess up and admit that I switched back to Google on 2009-12-11. I like Bing but I'm part of the Google generation. You're asking me to give up something that has been ingrained in my daily habits for 10+ years. That's not an easy task.

I also have a 3 column search interface set up returning results from the BIG 3. Google isn't broke yet and I usually get the results I'm looking for. There are advanced queries that I've come to know which Bing does not support.

One of my biggest yet simplest things that I missed was the definition link. Google recently switched from Answers.com to their own Dictionary. I still like having that as I do a bit of research every day and rely on that definition link.

I'm in a comfort zone with Google Search. There is nothing inherently wrong with it. I'm not too certain that I like the Personalized Search and time will tell. Apparently enough people liked it for Google to make it default. The general searching public will never know.

One of my predictions for search in 2010? META Search Engines will become the next fad - again. :)

[yaix2]

So what are the results now after a month? Anybody actually made it without G?

I did put a little JS on my home button, to call a search engine (Bing, Y!, Cuil, etc.) by change each time. On many searches, any of the search engines seem to give ok results.

[Swanny007]

Yeah, I made it, in fact... I haven't gone back. Bing is still my main search engine of choice. The odd time I use Yahoo, Clusty, StartPage, or Google, but Bing is still what I use daily.

I still think Google provides good results (perfect, no, good, yes), but my privacy concerns are keeping me from letting them continue to track me like crazy.

I also tested out Clusty for site search (i.e. adding a Clusty box to my own site). So far so good on that front. That's another thread though... Clusty doesn't retain any personal info by the way.

[httpwebwitch]

I made it the entire month on Bing. There were times - rare times - when I was tempted to look elsewhere, when Bing didn't provide what I was looking for. Now that I'm finished the 'thon, I'm still using Bing most often. It's my default search now.

[dertyfern]

I used Bing the entire month and found it to be perfectly fine for most searches. Still using it and in fact am in the habit, going to Google seem weird to me now.

[bill]

I stuck with Bing the entire month as well, but there were times when I had to jump to GG for comparison. There are some times when GG simply has better SERPs. However, I have not changed any of my machines defaults back.

[TinkyWinky]

Yep agree with some other posters - I only go back to G to check MY sites to see how they are coming along and occassionally for very long tail or complex searches in order to serve up a comparison - which splits 60:40 on results in G's favour at the moment.

All PC's now set to Bing - can't wait for them to sort out UK results Q1 as that will be a big test in another key market. God knows we need something else to challenge an 80%+ dominance.

TW