Bing and Google - Best Friends

For my current job hunt, I've been learning a lot about search engines and what it takes to get your brand to the top, literally. Different search engines use different algorithms and metrics to determine what pages turn up for organic searches and in what order they turn up. I've always relied heavily on Google for most of my internet-ing needs (email, RSS, & gchat), so today I decided to try something different and explore Bing. I was curious to see how the search results would differ between Google and Bing.

I went to the Bing homepage (note: I searched "Bing" in my Google search bar. Old habits die hard). The page itself looks cool- today they're featuring Bassano del Grappa. And if you pan across the page, it gives you bits of trivia about the Italian town.


So then the question was what to search? Just then my iTunes changed to a song by Yuksek, a DJ that I've been really into lately. He has amazing remixes of artists I love (Chromeo, Amanda Blank, and even Lady Gaga). He's also easy on the eyes.... very, very easy on the eyes.

The top 10 search results were about the same, though in a slightly different order. There was his official site, Wikipedia page, and Myspace in the top 3 for both search engines. I was surprised to find that he doesn't own the yuksek.com URL. Hmm... poor SEM strategy on his part. Or maybe he should have chosen a different stage name with an available URL.

Google did generate one unrelated search result, and on the first page too! It was a Turkish site. While I'll give them credit that "yüksek" is a Turkish word, this is definitely not what I was looking for. Bing, on the other hand, led me to this awesome NME (New Musical Express) page, which linked me to more Yuksek music and news. How did this NME page not make it on the first page of the Google search results?

In any case, I browsed around the search results, and not surprisingly ended up going through an embarrassing number of pages of photos. I have to say that Bing is definitely not as strong for image searches. There were a lot of completely unrelated (and also pornographic) results in the first few pages. Through Google, I found a lot of pictures of Yuksek and Brodinski, another great DJ. They're such cute friends!





I always think it's cute when celebrities are friends. Something about it makes them a little more human, and it always makes me wonder what they gossip about over lunch. Life goals? Work? Dating? Indigestion?

Anyways, in the question of Bing vs. Google, I have to say that I'll loyally continue using Google. The search results on Bing were similar to the ones on Google, and there was no added value in their features (related searches, shopping, etc). Also, as long as I use gmail, google reader, gchat, and google maps for my iPhone, I can't think of any incentive to stray. I welcome any suggestions as to why you prefer Bing over Google, or any other search engine for that matter.

Bing hasn't proven its worth to me just yet, even though I think it has the potential to further differentiate itself in the future. Or they just have to wait for Google to completely screw up- which remains doubtful.

If you're interested in Yuksek's music, check out some of the downloads available at the RCRD LBL blog. My friend Elliott, also known as my music conscience, showed me this blog- it's great.

To end on the best friends note, here's me and mine:

I'm going to see her this weekend and we're each going to have a bottle of wine and pizza on Valentine's Day.

Also, check out her tumblr Meet the Chans.