Does Microsoft realize how bad Bing searches are?

[orcus116]

I rarely use Bing, though sometimes at work the Bird's Eye view from Maps is helpful but in terms of actually searching for things on both the main web search and maps it's one of the most inaccurate, terrible search engines I've ever used. For example I searched for "long island city" in the maps and it came up with this:

https://www.bing.com/maps/#JnE9LmxvbmclMmJpc2xhbmQlMmJjaXR5JTdlc3N0LjAlN2VwZy4xJmJiPTQ2LjQyOTMxNTE1ODc5JTdlLTExNy45MTE0NTQ0NTQ3NzMlN2U0Ni40MDM2NjM4MjQ1OTY1JTdlLTExNy45Nzg4MzE1NDUyMjc=

I mean you've got to be kidding me. I feel like this thing has been in Alpha build for 2+ years now. The web search is just as bad.

[Sketchy]

I love the fact there does not appear to be a settlement in sight, but there is at least one wilderness.

[rumborak]

Try searching for "Harvard Square" in Google Maps and see where it puts it

[Zook]

What are you talking about? Bing is way better than Google. Haven't you seen the commercials?!

[robwebster]

It's probably because they don't get enough customer feedback to identify the problem areas, since no bugger uses them.

I have no idea what they thought they were doing trying to take on Google. It's like trying to dethrone Marmite as the chief producers of yeast extract. It's a brand that's become the name of the thing! Don't know what it's like internationally, but they had so many adverts on telly for a while. They must've plunged millions into pissing everyone off every quarter of an hour. But it's not a problem anyone's got. Nobody's been sat at home, on the internet, drumming their fingers because they can't think of a search engine. Even if it's brand awareness, "Shit Google" isn't a brand I'd break the bank promoting. It doesn't really need it, anyway. Promote the products that have Bing-search built in (Xboxes, smart phones, whatever) and eventually someone, somewhere, is going to notice that there's a big long bar on the screen. And when they find out how to use it, they'll tell their friends! They'll say, "If you type "Google" into it, and click the first result, you can search for stuff on the internet."

I think Bing might top the list of things I irrationally and disproportionately hate despite the fact that it's completely and utterly harmless. It's like wanting to punch a blind cat in the face, repeatedly, just because it looks a bit smug. Except it's not a cat. It's an equally useless wide, white rectangle.

God I hate Bing.

[pogoowner]

Try searching for "Harvard Square" in Google Maps and see where it puts it

I actually ended up walking to the wrong Harvard Square during one of my Boston visits, due to Google Maps. It was a LONG day.

[orcus116]

I just looked that up. That is sad, especially since the first drop down search is for Boston, MA.

[Sketchy]

It's probably because they don't get enough customer feedback to identify the problem areas, since no bugger uses them.

I have no idea what they thought they were doing trying to take on Google. It's like trying to dethrone Marmite as the chief producers of yeast extract. It's a brand that's become the name of the thing! Don't know what it's like internationally, but they had so many adverts on telly for a while. They must've plunged millions into pissing everyone off every quarter of an hour. But it's not a problem anyone's got. Nobody's been sat at home, on the internet, drumming their fingers because they can't think of a search engine. Even if it's brand awareness, "Shit Google" isn't a brand I'd break the bank promoting. It doesn't really need it, anyway. Promote the products that have Bing-search built in (Xboxes, smart phones, whatever) and eventually someone, somewhere, is going to notice that there's a big long bar on the screen. And when they find out how to use it, they'll tell their friends! They'll say, "If you type "Google" into it, and click the first result, you can search for stuff on the internet."

I think Bing might top the list of things I irrationally and disproportionately hate despite the fact that it's completely and utterly harmless. It's like wanting to punch a blind cat in the face, repeatedly, just because it looks a bit smug. Except it's not a cat. It's an equally useless wide, white rectangle.

God I hate Bing.

Rob, I want to make you cakes. Here and now. Lots and lots of cakes. That post made my day.

[lateralus88]

I remember the first time I used bing. It was a short lived experience. But to be fair, it doesn't take that long to click the hyperlink to "Google".

[Cedar redaC]

I wonder what the most searched thing for on Bing is. I think that it would probably be Google.

[theseoafs]

Not quite sure why Rob "hates" Bing, since it's completely and utterly benign.  If you prefer Google's search results to Bing's, then just do what the rest of America does and use Google.  No reason to spend any of your time at all thinking about it.

I view Bing as a massive miscalculation on Microsoft's part.  Google conquered the search engine.  Whenever anyone thinks of searching on the Internet, they think of Google.  That's just how it works now.  I have no idea why Microsoft felt compelled at all to spend the R&D and advertising money on it, when it almost definitely would have been better spent on other projects.

[robwebster]

Not quite sure why Rob "hates" Bing, since it's completely and utterly benign.  If you prefer Google's search results to Bing's, then just do what the rest of America does and use Google.  No reason to spend any of your time at all thinking about it.

Yes, I did notice. I even said "completely and utterly" like you did. Here's the proof:

I think Bing might top the list of things I irrationally and disproportionately hate despite the fact that it's completely and utterly harmless. It's like wanting to punch a blind cat in the face, repeatedly, just because it looks a bit smug.

But as you asked, I think it's mostly the adverts. I'd have been completely indifferent if it weren't for the adverts, but now that I'm aware of the brand, and have had it repeatedly shoved in my face in the most obnoxious way possible, (that's children doing monkey impressions, fact-fans,) it's given me a vested interest in seeing the product launched by this feeble cascade of smarmy windswept pissverts crash and burn. And there are reasons it's obnoxious beyond the ad campaign, anyway. They're trying to create a new product in a market that neither needs nor wants it - they've not seen an opportunity, or a gap in the market. They've just got a bit greedy and decided to barge in anyway, announcing themselves with the battle cry of "Coming through," just like everyone you've ever hated at a Muse gig.

The marketing campaign tarred their product with a brush covered in shit. Not manure, I'll stress, manure's useful, and not even a healthy bat-guano you could transform into gunpowder - just a weak, anaemic alcoshit, dripping tiny beige puddles whenever it travels from the bucket to the canvas. If they'd introduced it quietly, without fanfare, just so they'd have their own technology to develop and use innately on their own hardware, that'd be fine, and I'd probably stand a chance of using it on my Xbox 360. I might've even gone, "Oh, that's quite good, actually," and they'd have stood a chance of creating repeat custom. Instead, they harped on about how great it was, incessantly, when I just wanted to watch Ground Force. And it's not great. It's shit. And I don't have to just stop thinking about it. They made me spend time thinking about it, by plastering their logo over all and sunder. They wanted me to think about it, they asked me to think about it, they bombarded me with messages, they spent millions upon millions telling me that "THIS AM BING, THINK ABOUT THIS," and this is the conclusion I drew.

Yes, I know. I'm sure they're quaking in their boots.

[Implode]

It's great to see you attacking something for once. 

[black_biff_stadler]

I concur!

[robwebster]

I am mostly joking, I should probably clarify, having read it back and shuddered. I'm not angry, I'm having a whale of a time being as gratuitously bilious as possible: I defy anyone to come up with the phrase "feeble cascade of smarmy windswept pissverts" without grinning their shitmunchingest grin of the day. Joking on the square, though - I do think trumping up their fairly weak brand lacked any kind of self-awareness, and will have fostered very little goodwill. It's the product nobody was waiting for, and it's the kind of thing that would've spread organically if they'd released it with less fanfare, natively to all their products.

Additionally, I don't really like how adverts are tailored to manufacture consent. Obviously, they're not going to make a big deal of their bad points, but I think it's very important that advertisers don't get the last word on how their brand is perceived, so again, I'm not entirely joking - there's an element of protest. I think it's right that people soapbox about how terrible a brand is. They want a reaction, and if it's not the one they were hoping for, it's important not to keep silent. I wouldn't compare Bing to a dripping beige alco-shit without my tongue firmly in my cheek, though.

[Chino]

A few months back, Microsoft had their "Bing It On" campaign. You could go to this site, search for something, and two blind search results were shown to you. One was google and one was bing. You were suppose to check which results you liked more. This was repeated five times before revealing what your preference was... Well, I did the trial 3 times and went 15-0 in favor of google.