Want to ‘Google’ something? Try Bing

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Just about every time I interview an attorney and ask what he or she does for fun, the answer invariably is “travel.” If that’s your interest, you might want to visit Bing.com the next time you’re searching the Web.

The basics about Bing, which, it’s speculated, might stand for “But It’s Not Google!”: It’s a search engine launched June 1 by Microsoft. Some say it is a re-branded, re-hashed version of Microsoft’s Live Search, which is no more. I suspect these are people who are likely predisposed to loathe anything from Microsoft, just as others believe Google is a giant looking to be toppled. Both camps tend to attract individuals who likely spend too much time in front of a computer, and who should probably… travel more, in my estimation, preferably to where there’s no wi-fi.

Moreover, Microsoft and Yahoo entered into an “advertising partnership” late last month, while some news accounts called the deal an “acquisition.” Yahoo was long considered the number two search engine, with Bing coming in at number three. So the competition is heating up.

Back to Bing. Its homepage, which changes daily, is a photograph of interesting world destinations. Run the mouse across the image, and snippets of trivia about the location appear, so you can easily identify it. In comparison, Google rarely changes its homepage, typically just on holidays.

Mary Koshollek, an attorney and the director of information and records services at Godfrey & Kahn S.C. in Milwaukee, prefers Bing’s aesthetics.

“It’s fun. I think they’re trying to put forth a different take on the search engine — to be a little cooler, a little more hip and offer a little more functionality,” she says. She adds that from what she’s read, you can get rid of the colorful interface, if you want to. If you’re a really boring person.

Since this is a column about cheap/free stuff for lawyers, and sometimes cheap/free stuff for anybody, I’ll note right away that Bing tops Google in the dollars-and-cents regard, too. Bing Shopping offers a cashback program, as Live Search did, where you earn back a “percentage” of the products you buy. Bing’s FAQs won’t reveal what that percentage is, other than to say that you can earn up to $2,500 every calendar year. Google doesn’t match that, and in my mind, something is better than nothing — although if you’re averse to creating an account and revealing personal information, this whole aspect of the question is null and void.

I suppose the best measure of a search engine is which gets better, more pertinent results.

Koshollek recommends a visit to www.bing-vs-google.com, to try the two side-by side.

She tried searching for her own name. Both found LinkedIn as the first result, but Bing found her law firm as number two, while it was the eighth Google result. To her, the place where she spends the bulk of her time, every day, is a pretty relevant result and should be higher up. As for the volume of results, Bing found 2,030, while Google found 9,630. From the reviews I’ve read, that’s typical – Google usually yields more results. But do you ever go past the third or fourth page of results anyway?

As for some of the various features, Koshollek also did a search for “Siamese cats,” one of her passions, on the comparison Web site. This gave Bing an edge because she liked how it categorizes the results in the left panel – such as sale, adoption, breeders, training, etc. (Really? You can train a Siamese cat?)

Some of the features I liked about Bing, that Google lacks, are after performing a search, if you move the cursor to the right of a result, a summary window opens with excerpts from the underlying site, so you can quickly determine whether to go to the site. It also has a video thumbnail preview and an image search with a continuous scrolling images results page. In addition, the left-hand panel lists recent searches, so you don’t have to click on history as you do with Google. All of these features are designed to be time-savers, I’m sure, and I appreciate that concern.

Bing also features real-time search. In the past, search engines were not known for their capability to find recently posted content. Now, however, if you search for someone and add “Twitter” to the search, such as “Jon Groth Twitter,” you’ll get a list of Jon’s recent tweets. But, I tried it with some other Wisconsin attorney social media addicts I follow, and didn’t find their tweets, for no apparent reason.

What gives Google an edge, according to attorney Terrence Dunst, of Bakke Norman SC in its Baldwin office, is its Advanced Search feature, which he uses often to narrow his queries. While both search engines have it, and allow you to limit searches by language, country of origin and domain, Google additionally allows limiting by location of search terms (anywhere in the page, in the title, in the links to the page, etc.); by time span (past day, week, month, etc.), and by document type (PDF, Word document, rich text file, etc.).

The bottom line?

Dunst likes the upstart, Bing, but goes back and forth between the two. Likewise, Koshollek has bookmarked the Bing v. Google site, and now plans to use it regularly to compare results.

She adds that it’s Standard Operating Procedure among research-types like herself to use multiple search engines.

As for me, I like Bing. Don’t expect it to revolutionize the way you practice, nor should you expect huge differences from the old standby, Google. But do give it a try, and plan upon reaping the benefits that a high-profile fight to be the number one search engine will give us, the consumers.