Alright, Microsoft, I’ve tried Bing out: I set it as my primary search engine on the iPhone (iOS 4 only) and played with it for about a week. Unfortunately, I don’t think it’s enough to steal me away from Google. Actually, it ‘s not even close.
Desktop
The problem with Bing on the desktop is that the ads are too confusing. I’m too used to Google’s clean system where ads stay out of the way and mainly on the sidebar. Bing likes to bookend my search results with text ads that look a lot like search results, and it ‘s just plain annoying to feel like my search engine is playing games with me.
Google on iPhone
Google got a pretty big head start and has received some major optimizations because both Android and iOS can take advantage of them. There may be some slight variations, but every single update to the Google mobile site has seemed like a “two birds with one stone” deal for Google, which works out very nicely for users. The Google homepage is very clean and features an extra large search bar in a prominent place in the middle of the screen. Text has been made larger for easier reading on the iPhone, video and image previews are displayed in-line, and the whole experience feels tailor made for modern touch devices, not cellphones.
Bing on iPhone
I tried really hard to get used to Bing ‘s new system, but I think it just gets in the way of getting any searching done. The Bing homepage is a jumble of very small text, and initiating a search won ‘t take you right to the search results like Google does. Instead, you ‘ll see a preview screen that shows two web results, three images, and links to news, maps, and local information. I find this far too little information, and I actually had difficulty getting image results to reliably display (I could see thumbnails, but couldn ‘t get to the full size images).
Tapping to see all of the web results reloads the page and shows a full page of links. Bing shows a lot more information on-screen than Google (due to the smaller font size), but I find it counter-intuitive to have to tap through to see the full first page. It ‘s also difficult to get to other search result pages, since the ‘previous ‘, ‘next ‘, and ‘back to results page ‘ links are jammed so close together (Google isolates the ‘next ‘ button, so it ‘s easy to tap).
The last bit that really frustrated me was the lack of any ‘erase ‘ button within the Bing search bar. I ‘ve developed a habit of using the in-page Google search bar when I refine a search, instead of the one to the right of Safari ‘s URL bar. Google offers a simple ‘x ‘ button for erasing your query, but Bing offers no such thing. You just have to erase the whole thing manually.
To make a long story short, if you ‘re happy with Google, then don ‘t even bother with Bing for a while. I think the service is bound to get better (especially if Windows Phone 7 comes out later this year), but for now, it ‘s just far too basic, and isn ‘t very touch friendly.
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