Summary
Google is the mammoth market leader, the bright light that illuminates the SEO world first and foremost; Bing is the large moth that is fluttering around that light, hoping to block it out with large wings that span the globe - but a small butterfly flying on it's own is the one to watch- the visionary search engine NeXplore.com - ya gotta try it to believe it!
Analysis
I've often thought a "search engine comparison site", would be a great idea for benchmarking, and it appears that Bing-vs-Google.com has almost built exactly what I had in mind. I say "almost" because as the name indicates, the comparison of search engines is limited to just two of the higher profile players... Bing and Google. I love the concept, but they forgot to let users select the search engines to be compared. Yes, I realize they couldn't call it Bing-vs-Google , but I've checked it out and SearchEngineShootout.com is still available! I'm sure that Yahoo will also wonder why they aren't included, along with Alta Vista, Ask.com, NeXplore , and even real small sites like Mark Cuban's"mamma.com".
There are a lot of really cool sites out there, feature rich, super fast, and coincidentally, NOT named Bing or Google. So why stop at just comparing two? I have nothing against either one... and use both with some regularity, but at the end of the day, I am going to most frequently use the site that serves me best - and that one is NeXplore , hands-down .
Google and Bing... these two giants of the marketplace are just too darn similar. As Steve Ballmer , CEO of Microsoft himself declares (paraphrased) "...a dozen blue hyperlinks and some URL ads ... is this the best we can do?" (Associated Press, November 2008)... My response is, "If you limit yourself to just these two tussling tigers, then the answer is ‘yes’, at least for now."
What really catches my eye when I use the comparative view provided by Bing-vs-Google.com is how similar (and how boring) both search engines actually are. When you generate millions of exposures each week (day?) it seems like a wasted opportunity. Let me give you an example...
My wife and I are thinking about buying a new house, so I did a search using the phrase "mortgage" on Bing-vs-Google.com. Other than a difference in which links appears in what order, (and a map that Bing throws in way down at the bottom of the screen), there isn't much to make me choose one link over another. Using Bing or Google, I now have to further research my search!
Now do the same thing on NeXplore ... go ahead - open up your favorite browser, navigate to www.NeXplore.com and type in "mortgage"... the difference you'll experience is immediate - for me the user, and for the sponsoring advertisers. NeXplore is the far richer search engine experience - and the information outstrips both Bing and Google. There is just no comparison – but for the sake of a decent article, let’s try…
Put NeXplore into the BvG comparison, and both Google and Bing remind me of what I would expect to see on a text terminal from the 80's. Just text. NeXplore on the other hand is colorful, rich in multimedia, and has interactive icons for email, chat, social networking, even instant Skype internet voice dialing. Click the phone icon, and you’re talking to a mortgage agent! NeXplore appears to be just what Ballmer himself would clamor for...
As with Bing, in NeXplore you see a left -sided column with common and useful similar search words, but unlike either Bing or Google, users also get a preview of related Wikipedia articles related to the main subject. That's useful stuff.
We also get preview thumbnails... so rather than having to click on a Google link and actually going to a web site to see what it has to do with my search, NeXplore actually lets me see a thumbnail of the site home page...Just move your mouse over the various links in the main results section and you get preview after preview. Efficiency in a search engine result page... why didn't the big boys think of this?
Just like Bing and Google, on the right side of the Nexplore screen is a list of advertisers. Move your mouse pointer to the top listed advertiser and depending on the search result, you may get a animated infomercial... in the case of my 'mortgage' search, there is a professionally done thumbnail commercial that plays automatically - move your mouse away, and the commercial instantly disappears. Neat!
Yes - I'm evangelizing... and not every single search I do brings up all the neat options available to the advertiser – but most every page has tons of this sort of stuff, and that makes my search far more productive.
Google and Bing... these two giants of the marketplace are just too darn similar. As Steve Ballmer , CEO of Microsoft himself declares (paraphrased) "...a dozen blue hyperlinks and some URL ads ... is this the best we can do?" (Associated Press, November 2008)... My response is, "If you limit yourself to just these two tussling tigers, then the answer is ‘yes’, at least for now."
What really catches my eye when I use the comparative view provided by Bing-vs-Google.com is how similar (and how boring) both search engines actually are. When you generate millions of exposures each week (day?) it seems like a wasted opportunity. Let me give you an example...
My wife and I are thinking about buying a new house, so I did a search using the phrase "mortgage" on Bing-vs-Google.com. Other than a difference in which links appears in what order, (and a map that Bing throws in way down at the bottom of the screen), there isn't much to make me choose one link over another. Using Bing or Google, I now have to further research my search!
Now do the same thing on NeXplore ... go ahead - open up your favorite browser, navigate to www.NeXplore.com and type in "mortgage"... the difference you'll experience is immediate - for me the user, and for the sponsoring advertisers. NeXplore is the far richer search engine experience - and the information outstrips both Bing and Google. There is just no comparison – but for the sake of a decent article, let’s try…
Put NeXplore into the BvG comparison, and both Google and Bing remind me of what I would expect to see on a text terminal from the 80's. Just text. NeXplore on the other hand is colorful, rich in multimedia, and has interactive icons for email, chat, social networking, even instant Skype internet voice dialing. Click the phone icon, and you’re talking to a mortgage agent! NeXplore appears to be just what Ballmer himself would clamor for...
As with Bing, in NeXplore you see a left -sided column with common and useful similar search words, but unlike either Bing or Google, users also get a preview of related Wikipedia articles related to the main subject. That's useful stuff.
We also get preview thumbnails... so rather than having to click on a Google link and actually going to a web site to see what it has to do with my search, NeXplore actually lets me see a thumbnail of the site home page...Just move your mouse over the various links in the main results section and you get preview after preview. Efficiency in a search engine result page... why didn't the big boys think of this?
Just like Bing and Google, on the right side of the Nexplore screen is a list of advertisers. Move your mouse pointer to the top listed advertiser and depending on the search result, you may get a animated infomercial... in the case of my 'mortgage' search, there is a professionally done thumbnail commercial that plays automatically - move your mouse away, and the commercial instantly disappears. Neat!
Yes - I'm evangelizing... and not every single search I do brings up all the neat options available to the advertiser – but most every page has tons of this sort of stuff, and that makes my search far more productive.
I rarely find a reason to pump a company or product that is not a client of my company, but excellence is entitlement to reward.... and if you haven't tried www.NeXplore.com , then you're really missing the best search engine on the third planet closest to the sun.
If you don't mind being boxed into a hyperlink search engine world, then stick with Google or Bing. Both do the minimum basics of what a search engine is supposed to do. But then you are rewarding their mediocrity with your allegiance.
Just remember this… if the dominant market forces don't have a reason to change, add new features, and deliver more benefits like NeXplore already delivers - then the results from a Bing-vs-Google.com search will look the same for years to come.
This author consults with leading institutions through GLG
Analyses are solely the work of the authors and have not been edited or endorsed by GLG.
