In the battle of the search engines, Google has long held the top position. Most of the big G’s die hard followers claim it is the simplicity of the tool that keeps them using it.  Another smaller percentage will claim that they would rather eat week old gym socks than to have anything to do with a Microsoft product. In either case, they may need to rethink their stance on search.

Enter Microsoft bing, the new search platform from the software behemoth that has brought the world such mediocrity as Windows 95 and Windows Me along with such utter failures as Internet Explorer and Windows Vista, just to name a few. (Does anyone remember Microsoft BOB? <shudder>.) With a long sting of disappointments and failures under their belt, it would be a fair assumption to immediately class the newly re branded Microsoft bing as one of the many almost-great ideas the company puts out on a fairly regular basis. The only problem is, it’s not a failure at all.

On the contrary, bing works, and it works very well.  Under threat of being ostracized by every member of the “I hate Microsoft Society”, I’m willing to say that so far I’m willing to skip Google as my primary search engines in favor of this new Microsoft tool in most cases.

Wait! Before you get out your torches and pitchforks, let me explain why!

Bing is fast…  Blazingly fast. While Google Search isn’t usually slow, bing just feels faster, and that counts for a lot when you’re in the midst of looking for something important.

Bing gives you options… need to refine your search?  bing hands you a list of suggestions in a manner similar to Apple’s spotlight or Microsoft vista’s Desktop Search.  This can drastically reduce drill-down times. The mouse over quick view of page content can be a lifesaver in rejecting that “almost relevant” page or two in the listings.

Bing listens and tries to adjust to what you’re looking for. Rather than just throwing out a list of keyword specific results that may or may not have the slightest thing to do with what you were actually searching for, bing seems to take the time to put your searches in context.  Google doesn’t bother with little things like this; it deals more with keyword relevance. bing responds a lot more like the original Ask Jeeves, which was my search engine of choice before it was bought out in the early 2000′s

Bing Feels finished… This may be the Mac user and designer in me, but Google’s interface just doesn’t have what it takes to be considered a modern application. It stagnated somewhere in the early 90′s and now relies on iGoogle to make it feel mature.  Bing delivers a modern experience without the need to log in to an account.  In my opinion this is a huge plus.

In short, I think bing is giving users all the options and power of Google Search with the added advantages of intelligent algorithms and a polished experience that far surpasses the competition.  This time Google does have something to worry about, because bing is bringing a new level of search to the table, and one I think deserves your attention.