Microsoft's "New" Search Engine, Bing. New Name, Old Engine?

From today until the end of next week Microsoft will be rolling out its new search engine, Bing, in an attempt to claw back some of the monopoly Google currently holds in the world of search.

The Guardian, Times and Twitter are all a flutter over this "new" search engine, care of Bill Gates' empire. But how new is this?


Microsoft already has a number of search engine identities out there, of which MSN Search features as one of the big 3 in the UK, aside from Google and Yahoo!. However, currently it still retains active domains for the other names of its engine, Windows Live Search and Live Search. So now if there's a fourth domain name/identity for what is simply another (or the same) Microsoft search engine, are we going to see any added value this time around?

Apparently:

"...it will be powered by semantic search engine Powerset, which the company bought last year.

This means that whatever you type into the search engine, you will get a number of related queries in response.

Type in a band's name, and you should bet biographical details, lists of songs, alongside links to their official website and the likes of Wikipedia."

Source: MSN UK, Tech and Gadgets, Daily News, 28.05.09

Sounds nifty, but isn't Google's new 'show options' feature already pretty much doing this...?

According to The Guardian, Microsoft's CEO, Steve Ballmer claims the engine will offer:

"Guided search, which categorises searches and attempts to get users to useful information speedily. The system also integrates with a number of other technologies, bringing news and maps straight to searchers, as well as linking in to the company's Cashback scheme – which effectively pays users a small dividend every time they buy a product through the site."

Funny, isn't that what Live Search already offers?

To be fair though, MSN is my favourite engine out of the top 3 so far as it's visual design, usability and crawling capabilities go, so I shouldn't poke fun. Good luck Bill, may the best search engine win.

Lou_geek