So there’s a new search engine called
Bing. It’s made by Microsoft, and before it was Bing, it was Live Search, and before that Windows Live Search and MSN Search and... basically it’s been going since the Magna Carta, and since it’s not Google, 90% of people don’t care. But Microsoft does, and it wants you to. It’s really serious this time about taking on Google so it’s spending
billions of dollars to make sure people stop Googling and start Binging. Steve Ballmer said Microsoft was
“willing to spend five to ten percent of operating income for up to five years”. That’s serious cash.
A small slice of this moolah has fallen to us at
bit-tech (we already spent it on Taiwanese beef jerky), but unlike a lot of ad campaigns, this one is interesting as Microsoft has been quite keen to
know what we think, and what you, the readers think about search – specifically, the problems with it. If you do want to give your thoughts on search, we’re
running a survey and you can win an Xbox 360 Elite.
It’s a difficult question, because, to be honest, my first answer was that I didn’t really have any problems with search. Google just works. There’s a reason that
this is the answer given in many a forum thread.
