Bing – First Look and Cool Tips
Posted on : 07-06-2009 | By : Karthik | In : Bing, Microsoft, Zero Hacks, ZeroHacks
Tags: Bing, bing search engine, Microsoft search, search engine, windows live search
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Microsoft have reinvigorated it’s search and now Bing is out in the open for all. The Usage is interactive with text snap to get a quick preview of results.
Watch parts of even paid content or inaccessible videos through Bing
Bing list all videos as moving thumbnails with sound. This means you will be able to watch even restricted shows and paid content videos as thumbnails. Remember these are only excerpts NOT full videos. (Sometimes certainly worth it 
)
Bing is available on Mobile too
Access bing mobile via http://m.bing.com. Works as fine as Desktop version and better than Google and Yahoo’s mobile interface.
For More options change Location
Use http://www.bing.com/worldwide.aspx to choose your region. US, UK regions have more options and more unfiltered content.
Search files inside Pages
Use the contains keyword to search for specific files like gif, avi, mp3, divx etc inside the pages. This is unlike suffixing search term with ext:ppt in Google.
Example:
To find PPTs related to hedging
Bing: hedging contains: ppt –> The page will contain links to PPTs
Google: hedging ext:ppt –>PPTs which contains the word ‘hedging’
More search services
Currently the following services are active:
Health
+ –>Contains inline articles from medical experts
Images
++ –>You can scroll infinitely to find related images on the web. This is really a GREAT feature. It will save pressing “Next” several times like in Google which is now seem a tiring effort.
+ –>Facial search features
+ –>Black and white search
+ –>Photo or Illustration
++–>open an image in a new window/Tab you don’t have to come back to the other images as they are listed in the left side scroll bar.
+ All the options easily accessible unlike in Advances options in other search engines.
Local
Maps
+ –>Bird’s eye view for cities
+ –>Virtual 3D
News
Shopping
+–> Bing cashback offering money back for certain purchases made through the site.
Translator
http://www.bing.com/translator
Translate texts or entire web pages
Travel
+–> Best buy suggestions, looks promising.
Videos
++–> The Smart Preview to instantly watch a short preview of an original video.
xRank
Search ranks for celebrities, musicians
More about Bing @ : http://www.discoverbing.com/
Bing Tidbits
- Bing has taken over second position at over 15% of search traffic (Source: StatCounter) and this may be due to new interest in a new product and initial hype.
- Microsoft has set aside $100 million to promote Bing
- As usual Bing has been already banned in China. Ironically “Bing” is an easily memorable name for Chinese.
- Your IP address will remain in Microsoft’s log of your search for the next 18 months. For Google- 9 months, and Yahoo 90 days.
- The search still points to Live search help L
- Search Linux on Bing is not so OK.
Million Dollar Question
In one thing Bing may not be able to compete Google I think. Guess what -duration of Beta status.
Bing is not Google but this time it is neither like ‘Microsoft’ and is certainly on the upward trend.
Microsoft Bing would be the closet competitor of Google. but i still use Google because it shows more relevant results on the serp.
i have been evaluating the search results of Microsoft Bing compared to Google and they are comparable. Bing gives almost the same relevant search results just like Google.
Bing search engine gives almost the same search results as Google. Looks like Google will now have a tough competition when it comes to search engine technology.