At the end of last week, I poked fun at the name of Microsoft's latest search engine, Bing. While I still think it's a goofy name, after taking the search decision engine through its paces I'm a bit more optimistic.

I'm not saying I'm going to be using Bing as a verb anytime soon. In fact, I can safely say I never will (damn you Groundhog Day). However, I think Bing has a fighting chance to carve its own little niche in the internet. At its core, Bing is a search engine, but I can play along with Microsoft and say that it is a bit more than that.

The first thing you'll notice, and I believe the coolest thing about Bing is the front page. It looks as though every day, Microsoft will have a different background image presented on the front page. Spread across the image, are little fun facts relating to said picture. For example, today the topic is about a small province in Turkey. There's actually some interesting history to be had if you decide to take the time and explore it. I have a sneaking suspicion this could turn into advertising of some sort. Let's just say if there's a huge Nike swoosh slapped on there one day, I probably won't find it as quaint.

Once you get past the front page, and into the actual search you won't find anything too special. Here is where I must start comparing Bing to Google. Honestly, there's nothing in the web search portion of Bing that will steal you away from Google. I believe the layout of Bing's results just don't seem to flow as well as Google's results. The related searches section of the page is in the sidebar which is out of place, because if you scroll too far down you have to scroll back up to click on them. Also, Bing appears to be too smart for its own good.

If you type 'Ford' into your search bar, you don't just receive a list of sites with ranking based on the word Ford. Instead the results are divided into different categories: Ford Dealers, Ford Parts, Ford Parts. This might seem smart, but it could potentially be a nuisance if you really are just searching for one keyword. Hopefully this is something Microsoft will remedy in the future.

As always I've written way too much, and there's still aspects of Bing I want to discuss. Therefore I will be spilling my review/impressions of Bing into tomorrow's newsletter. What have your impressions of Bing been thus far? Is there any part of the site that will keep you going back?

The ideas presented in the WebProWorld newsletter editor's note do not reflect the thoughts, and ideas of the WebProWorld community.

| JohnnyV |