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Re: For at least one search term, Bing works much better than Google

GeekMBA360 — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 13:05:02 -0000

Thanks for the comments.

When I searched for "great american scenic railroads", the gsrj.com site showed up as #1 on bing.com -- that's right after bing.com was released to public. I guess it has now fell to #7.

I agree with your comments regarding the preciseness (or the lack of preciseness) of the search terms I used. But, I think part of the reason that gsrj.com is not showing up on top is that a lot of DVD vendors are gaming the game engines, and have their search results showing up on the top of the list. I think this is increasingly becoming a problem on google as it becomes more and more dominant in the search space. Sellers with big packets can simply spend more dollars on SEO and paid search to get their sites higher ranking on google.

It'd be interesting to see how Google and Bing will address this issue now and in the future.

Re: For at least one search term, Bing works much better than Google

james cross — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 19:08:20 -0000

I think the search term you used is somewhat misleading. I haven't seen the series, but the website you mentions is "great scenic railway journeys" but the DVDs are "great american scenic railroads". So they are different. Putting "great scenic railway journeys" into each search engine shows the gsrj.com site as the number one hit.

Putting "great american scenic railroads" in both engines gives a lot of CD hits, but Bing does put the gsrj.com site on the first results page, though around the 7th spot.

I'm not a Google (or Bing) bigot, but I just wanted to point out the disparity between what you were search for and the search terms you were using. I think both engines gave pretty good results.

Re: For at least one search term, Bing works much better than Google

GeekMBA360 — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 14:36:06 -0000

Thanks, Ted. I too think the new "Bing" brand is a smart move. In addition to the reason you mentioned, I think there is simply too much baggage associated with the "MSN Search" brand. Microsoft search product needs a fresh start. It'd be interesting to see if Bing can evolve into a verb -- I suppose that's the ultimate measurement of how successful Bing is.

Re: For at least one search term, Bing works much better than Google

TedHoward — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 13:53:19 -0000

Google's own research has shown that users report better results when Google's brand is on MSFT's results versus MSFT"s Live Search brand on Google's results (can't a source at the moment). This indicate that a redesign and rebrand may be MSFT's best tactic to gain market share. The deals to get Bing as the default on most PC' wont' hurt things either.
Betting against Microsoft is rarely a smart bet.