In Brief: Bing represents Microsoft’s legacy search engine, augmented with additional functionalities, rebranded with an aggressive marketing strategy in an attempt to carve out a portion of the search market from Google’s domain.No, Bing is not a nascent startup poised to unseat Google or a groundbreaking innovation in the realm of search. It is, rather, a rebranding effort by Microsoft to refresh its existing products and distance itself from the original branding to present a fresh appearance. Prior to the launch of Bing, Microsoft maintained two separate search engines and a suite of web properties dedicated to different search functionalities.These diverse offerings have now been unified under the Bing umbrella.Here are some of the key components that have been integrated into Bing:
MSN Search – Microsoft’s original search engine
Live Search – A Microsoft spin-off search engine
Farecast – Now rebranded as Bing Travel – (airfare prediction and booking service)
Medstory – Now Bing Health – (health-related search)
Jellyfish.com – Now Bing Shopping – (shopping comparison)
From an SEO standpoint, Microsoft’s search efforts remain unchanged with Bing. Your MSN rankings will be seamlessly transferred to Bing, requiring no additional SEO work to maintain a favorable ranking on the new platform. However, this does not imply that a Bing ranking will offer significant advantages.According to Hitwise, Bing captured a 5.25% share of the search market in June, while comScore reported that Bing held a 12% market share immediately after its launch at the start of the month.These figures pale in comparison to Google’s steady 65% to 75% market share. Despite this, Microsoft is keen to promote Bing as a viable alternative, with a $100 million advertising campaign aimed at persuading users to switch from Google:Yet, the team at CollegeHumor has humorously dissected Microsoft’s message in an edited version of a Bing advertisement. Bing: The better way to Google!Will you be making the switch to Bing?
