Business

Pros and Cons of Bing.Com Search Engine

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Google is by far the most popular search engine in the world. I don’t need to tell you that but that doesn’t tell the whole story. Microsoft’s Bing the search engine does a lot of things really well surprisingly and in some cases even better than Google.

 Hi this is Sahrish here and this is eight things Bing does better than Google. I know it’s hard to believe relying on Google to solve every information request is second nature to most of us. While Bing as a search engine is a distant second is practically unheard of for anyone to claim, it’s superior to Google. However there are a few areas where Bing does a lot better.

Pros of Bing.com Search Engine

According to Hyper Loop Web Design Maryland “While most people will prefer to use Google, the Microsoft search engine is actually a favourite Google alternative in many countries.”  For example in the United States as of January 2020 Bing commands a healthy eleven point eight seven percent market share of desktop search engines and with twelve point eight percent for tablet users.

 If we add Yahoo to the tally as it is powered by Bing that would mean a respectable 17 to 18 percent market share although that’s still way behind Google’s pole position there are a few advantages to Bing users being a forgotten marketing demographic. 

No Captures 

While being four results you will never encounter a capture wall which is a regular problem with Google search this is one of the reasons I started using Bing since I’m a compulsive search engine user and Google doesn’t always like it if you’re tired of proving to Google you’re not a bot Bing will welcome your excessive searches with open arms. 

Less Effort in Image Scrolling

Bing had originally introduced horizontal image scrolling which has now been replicated by Google. There are a few differences though. Google’s horizontal images open in a side panel which occupies almost half of the screen space only allowing you to preview five or six of these images without scrolling down further. The worst part is when you click on an image it first directs you to the hosts website, where you have to scroll down once again to trace where it is this defeats the whole purpose of image previews. With bing searching for good images takes far less effort the horizontal scrolling panel occupies the entire screen. It feels like a slideshow you can quickly return to the thumbnail view by clicking the close button on top. Once you click on an image you will directly view a full sized image in a separate tab rather than being forced to visit the website first. Bing allows you to quickly view multiple images across different tabs. 

More Visual Search Options

Well Google allows you to search by image. It limits you to pasting image URLs or uploading them from your computer. Bing visual search additionally lets you drag images from your desktop or take a photo with your webcam of phone.

Advanced Video Search

If you have never tried Bing videos search engine, it’s time to give it a go.  You will be surprised at how developed the platform is. All the video search results are organized using neat thumbnails which can be scrolled clicking the preset stops underneath each image to view the same number of videos. Google’s video search you will have to scroll a hell of a lot more but that’s not where the differences end. You can directly play bing videos in full screen mode without having to visit YouTube, Facebook, Hulu, CNN, Fox or otherwise. In comparison Google will always direct you YouTube or other sites first. Bing videos also give superior results to Google video search. It’s at least as good as YouTube in terms of algorithmic suggestions because you just won’t need to visit YouTube unless of course you want to read the comments. 

My Saves

It’s a whole new experience in search engine to as many people are not aware of say a goodbye to saving bookmarks or favourites. Bing permanently displays a feature called ‘my saves’ which allows you to save all search results in one place. If you save my interests you get search suggestions on your favourite topics of choice again it’s the kind of feature you generally find on YouTube. 

Additional Privacy Settings

Bing allows you to totally turn off interest based advertising from the other privacy settings menu while it is well connected with Windows, Skype, Xbox and office. You have a clear choice not to use your Microsoft account. As a user you are in complete control of your privacy. Unlike Google Microsoft does not use content based targeting where say your emails chats and files and other personal stuff are not tracked for advertising. You can also delete all search history so Microsoft privacy dashboard.

Office 365 Integration

Bing Integrates quite well with office 365 which includes: outlook Word, PowerPoint, One Drive and Excel. For example, while creating a PowerPoint presentation you can directly use a Bing search for the keywords. It will immediately fetch search results from Creative Commons which can be directly inserted in the presentation the same way you get Bing search options during a Skype chat. 

Overall Look and Feel

Compared to Google’s Spartan interface Bing feels more colourful and inspirational. The Wallpapers for example are changed frequently and are frankly gorgeous.

Cons of Bing.Com Search Engine

Now we have described several pros of using the Bing search engine. It is important to discuss its biggest drawback which is Bing is not Google. In terms of conventional search engine results and accuracy Bing and other search engines have a long way to go before they can deliver Google level performance. This means Google does way better in terms of more search results more relevant search results and a better understanding of user intent. As long as other search engines don’t improve their search results quality Google search will remain unchallenged. Personally I am now using Bing at least 40% the time because I don’t want to do deal with Google’s captures. I am increasingly using its image and video search features and Bing also integrates very well with the new Microsoft edge browser which is a lot people’s choice. However when it comes to regular search queries most people including me prefer Google search engine over Bing.