The earlier post today was about Apple, so here's one tangentially related to Microsoft.
Actually, I'm just going to come out and say it. It's Bing. It's about Bing. It's almost like a confession - "My name's Darren, and I use Bing."
I won't start a big debate about whether Bing is better than Google or Yahoo is better than MSN or whoever is better than whoever, that's for you to do in the comments. Instead, I will focus on a very small aspect of the site's design, point out one of the things I like about Bing, one of the small touches that make their site appealing. Just as Google used a minimalist design to make the site appealing and showcase it's results (or at least said they did - note point #3), Bing tries to make their site visually appealing through the use of daily images.
However, while the images are nice, every once in a while they have one that is animated, using the new-in-Internet-years HTML5 standard. Sometimes they're subtle, sometimes they're more animated, but I'm always mesmerized by them.
If you go to Bing today, February 10th, you'll see the header image for this post with animated water. A nice, subtle touch. If you go after February 10th, you can click on the little left-arrow icon next to the (info) button at the lower-right of the screen, and it will cycle through the previous days' images. I've also included a couple of videos below that show animated wallpapers they've had in the past.
Then, if you really want to get the discussion heated, you can go to www.bingiton.com and do a blind comparison of Bing v. Google to see which one reigns supreme. Do you dare? Just to show you I'm fair in my approach, here are my results from last year. I'm not proud of this.I still like Bing! Anyone ave any preference? Want to defend your search engine? This is the place!
Here are a couple of videos of some animated wallpapers they've had in the past. It was surprisingly, and sadly difficult to find any.
From someone else that likes to use Bing as my main web search engine, I think that they came up with a great concept and visual appealing search engine. Everyday there is a new high resolution image and it is just as simple as Google in every aspect of the website. You will start to notice on newer computers, when searching for websites and get the address wrong, more and more computer are going directly to Bing instead of Google, well at least a few of the newer computers that I have used have done so.
ReplyDeleteWhen I did the bingiton.com search engine comparision of that of Google vs. Bing all my webpage searches that I chose are that of Bing. I think that they have a better webpage that shows more items than that of Google. They have more information about the certain item that you had searched for using Bing rather than Google.
- Shane Booth
Everyone has their opinion, however I have always preferred google. When ever I needed to find something, information, whatever, google always gave me more quality of information to use. Bing might have given me more sources, but nothing that actually helped my search, like I got with google. Bing may look nicer, but google for me is just simple, and that works for me. I guess I am the outsider!
DeleteNo anonymous, you are not the only one. I still do prefer Bing, and for the results of professor Denenberg, it looks like he likes Google better too but he is on denial. What it really comes to show me however is how important the marketing of these two sites is for their existence and success, whether it is Google's doodle, or Bing's background. Funny how this is the one thing we are talking about but not their speed of results or quality of output from our search inputs. Happy searching y'all! Happy Googling (:
DeleteI too prefer Google! However, I don't see anything wrong with the images enhancing their home screen. The creative new images that can be seen on any given day are a nice addition. On my Ipad I use beautiful Google. This is your typical Google application, however it has been enhanced with different beautiful new pictures everyday. I don't mind the clean white screen, because Google is serving a function for me at the time. Sometimes, I am in a hurry and don't care about the visual effects as long as I get my search information. Sometimes, though the pics are an added bonus.
ReplyDeleteWhen Bing was launched in 2009 (yes, I used Bing to search for that fact), I tried to use it. I didn’t like it, but I really wanted to. The advertising was so cool and everyone was talking about it, but after a week, I was against all things Bing. I honestly can't remember what it was specifically that I didn't like about it, but since then I have avoided it like the plague. In fact, Bing is the default search engine that came with my Kindle but because of my frustration with Bing, I will actually search the term “Google” on the Bing page.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I have always wanted to the take the Bing/Google Challenge but never got around to it until today. I have to admit, Bing won!! So I wandered over to the Bing home page and took a look around and it is pretty awesome. The photos are beautiful and I especially like the news bar across the bottom of the page. Perhaps it was different when it was first launched; I can’t recall, but I am going to set Bing as my homepage for the next week and see what happens!
Shannon Vozar
My work here is done.
DeleteSo funny, because, I love it now!
DeleteI went to bingiton.com and Bing won four rounds! While I still make the statement, “google it!” I should probably change it to, “bing it!”. My employer has set bing as the default search engine for our computers and I have found more success with bing search results compared to google. In my experience, google tends to bring up a lot of blog and forum sites; sites your employer doesn’t want you on while at work. Most often I go to click a link and a get a block page error. Bing comes back with more direct websites that aren’t blocked. Working for a military lending company, the military is consistently updating things that we need to research and learn. We conduct a lot of internet research to stay in the know so it’s important to get search engine results I can access!
ReplyDeleteI too love the pictures and I love that I can download them as wallpaper. There’s nothing like a little fuzzy harp seal to make you smile. The fact that you can click the picture info button and learn more about the picture is a creative feature. One day there may be something up there that I want to see in real life and I can find out where it is. Take that google!
Ok I will admit the only search engine I use is Google, I love it. So when I read this post I decided to take the bingiton.com test and yes Google won. I have never used Bing so I decided to look at he website, I do like teh background photos and how you can look at the previous days. Unlike Google they just change the desin of the word "Google," with that plain white back drop. At my job the serach engine is already set and it is set to Bing, which I always change to Google. The thinks I did serach for during the Bingiton challenge, I did like how the search results were displayed maybe I will start to use Bing more often.
ReplyDeleteLike most of my peers, I use Google. I find that Google is the most reliable internet browser for me. I took the BingItOn challenge a year ago when my little brother showed it to me. Of course, Bing won and the first thing I though was "this is rigged!" I have so much loyalty towards Google, and in my eyes Bing will never fully live up to it. However, I must admit that I do love Bing's home-screen images, they add a very nice touch which is very aesthetically appealing, much so more than Google's simple home-screen.
ReplyDeleteI have to agree with many others that Google is a much more reliable, recognizable and reasonable convenient for their users. Though Bing is a good search engine, I still find Google to be the go to engine to search what I need to know and it is nice and some what scary that on my smart phone that my Gmail account is automatically on the Google app and tells me my appointments, when I am flying out, where home is and where it think I am going next and the distance in mileage and time I am away from that destination. So Google is definitely my favorite search engine but it is become more and more invasive on personal information to the point where I wish it did not have those options. I really do not want to lose my phone one day and have someone know where I live because my phone has kept that information well known. It is a search engine that is always seeming to expand.
ReplyDeleteI also prefer Google. I guess I can't really explain why I dislike Bing, I've just always used Google and I haven't gave Bing an opportunity per say. My employer has Bing set up as the default search engine, but I always switched it to Google, as soon as I noticed I was on a different search engine. I took BingItOn, Google won, which wasn't surprising to me because I felt like I noticed the layout difference. The animations on the home screen of Bing are awesome! I wouldn't mind looking at that every day, as long as it provided me with reliable sources. I'm a very open minded person, so I decided to switch my default search engine to Bing and try it out.
ReplyDeleteI do not at all consider myself to be knowledgeable with computers. I'm comfortable in using my everyday programs that I use and beyond that I don't get into computers. So honestly I don't really care which search engine I use. Although I do see there is a difference in what they pull up. No matter which one I use I seem to be able to find what I was looking for. When I did the bingiton.com I was fine with either search engine. I don't think that I am a good candidate to judge this though.
ReplyDelete