By Ina Fried, 2 June 2009 08:59
NEWS
Microsoft's Bing search engine has started to become publicly available, allowing the world to decide whether the company's latest effort has the goods to take on Google.
The engine, which replaces Live Search, debuted Thursday at the D: All Things Digital conference and is slated to be fully available by Wednesday.
Among the other naming changes that go along with the new search, Live Search Cashback is now Bing Cashback, while technology from Microsoft's Farecast acquisition now powers Bing Travel. Virtual Earth gets a name change and is now Bing Maps for Enterprise.
With Bing, Microsoft is trying to make the case that search today is still an often unsatisfying experience. That is a unique challenge for Microsoft. Although its research shows that most people repeat searches and give up without finding exactly what they are looking for, perceived satisfaction of search is actually pretty high.
To help make the case, Microsoft plans to spend plenty of money on advertising. Estimates in the advertising trade mags have pegged spending at $80m to $100m.
That's key, since very few people currently go out of their way to search using Microsoft's technology. Most Microsoft searches come via MSN, from toolbars and other methods, while just one or two per cent come from people actually typing Live.com into their browser's address bar.
Collins Stewart analyst, Sandeep Agarwal, said in a research note on Monday: "Nearly 98 per cent of the traffic at Live.com is passive [coming from MSN, etc] and Bing will be an attempt by Microsoft to establish its search offering as a destination Web site with high active traffic.
"In our view, though Microsoft's search technologies are ready for prime time, making a call on the success of Bing now will be premature."
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