Posts Tagged ‘Google’
Microsoft has finally announced the name of their new search engine. The search engine is to be named Bing.
At this point, Bing is not available, but will be progressively rolled out worldwide between now and June 3.
Press Releases from Microsoft state that Microsoft have designed Bing using a completely fresh look at how people search on the internet.
Over the last few years, the number of Web sites has increased exponentially.
The availability of such a vast amount of information has drawn more people online to make decisions, whether day-to-day tasks or major business and household purchases. But it’s also led to search engines that can provide too much information, and page after page of irrelevant or extraneous search results. In other words, even though the type, scope and amount of content on the Web has changed radically in the last decade, the tools we use to find information and make decisions have stayed basically the same.
Microsoft studies the search experience and found that
- Search results for 50 percent of the queries fail to meet the consumer’s needs
- 35 percent of people express dissatisfaction with search
- 72 percent of people surveyed said current search results are too disorganized
- Users are focused more on tasks and decisions: 66 percent of people reported using search engines to make decisions
- Seventy-five percent of people say they use a search engine to inform a decision for product purchase
- 62 percent to find a local business or destination
- 45 percent to select a flight or hotel
- 43 percent for healthcare research
Based on these studies, Microsoft wanted to peel away the layers standing between a user and information and help people make informed decisions.
That is why Microsoft are calling Bing the Decision Engine.
Links:
- Bing (Being rolled out between now and June 3)
- Bing the Decision Engine
- Behind the Bing Development (Guides, Videos and more)
- Bing on Twitter
I will post a review when I get to use Bing a little more.
Calvin Close
Wise Internet Solutions
If you have used the internet, you have probably used Google to search for something. However, Google can do a whole lot more than help you search for something on the internet.
If you want to know how Google sees your home, search for your full street address in Google. Click the Google Maps link at the top of the search results and it will show you a local street map. You can then click a link to see a real street view of your home.
If you would like directions to drive somewhere, search for the address, then click the “directions to here” link. Type in your starting location and you will be given turn-by-turn directions. If you click the little camera icon on the directions, you can look at a street view of each turn along the way.
If you want to buy something on the internet, once you search for an item like “Panasonic Digital Camera”, there will be a link at the top “Shopping”. Click this link and Google will show you a list of cameras for sale across the internet. There are also links for you to see images, videos and news about the item you are searching for.
If you want to know quickly what the weather will be like for the next few days, type in “Swainsboro weather” and Google will tell you the current weather and forecast for the next four days.
Do you want to know the status of any major airline flight, type in the flight number like NW2545 and Google will show you the actual departure time, whether it is late and its estimated arrival time.
Do you want to track a package being shipped by UPS, FedEx or USPS? If you have the tracking number, type it into Google and Google will give you a links to track the status of your shipment.
Google can also act like a smart calculator. You can get a quick answer for “36% of 250″, plus most other normal calculator functions. However, the Google calculator goes beyond that. If you want to know how much $250 Australian dollars is in US dollars, type in “250AUD in USD” and Google will tell you. The Google calculator can also convert miles to kilometers, Fahrenheit to Celsius, plus most other conversions.
Google can also quickly tell you the time in most cities in the world by typing “time in New York” or any other city. Google will show you the actual current time.
Google can also be your handy dictionary. Type in “define:apple” and you will get a whole range of definitions for apple.
The other search engines like Yahoo and Microsoft Live have similar features. In fact, Microsoft Live is coming out with some nice new features. Go to www.live.com and do some exploring.