OK, picture the scene. You’re looking to buy a product, or get some information about something on the Internet. Where do you go?

Well the odds are, it’ll be Google. Its fast reliable and offers two modes. One a ranked order of options or pay-per-click text adverts. Simple. What about “bing”?

Cue confused looks and raised eyebrows. bing is Microsoft’s contender in the heavyweight bar-knuckle boxing match that is search. And I have to say on my first look, I don’t get it. But can we dismiss Microsoft’s first one-on-one battle out of hand?

No, we certainly should not…

Eyes down, Bing goes beta

Ouch, sorry about that. Bing will replace Microsoft Live and has been quietly released to an unsuspecting audience in beta form. None of the wild, no expense spared razzmatazz that Windows XP and Vista where given, just a subdued “take a look at this” release.

Bing is meant to be different, more relevant. Its designed to anticipate what you’re doing and give more meaningful results than just a list of sites containing the keywords you used. You could say, its a semantic search engine. So, what does it look like?

Well, click and see. It’s better than trying to explain. Not much different from Google, apart from the pretty background graphic. Microsoft thinks you’ll like that. A feature, apparently.

Now, when you search for stuff, the returned information is what makes it stand out, so say the Microsoft marketing team. OK, let’s give it a try…

I opened up two browser tabs. One with bing, one with Google. I love Ducati motorcycles, so I searched as if I wanted to buy a popular model, the Ducati 848. What I found was surprising… and a bit inconsistent.

bing results: slightly random, but getting better on repeated searches

bing brought up a page of results all something to do with Ducati, but only the first four referred to the Ducati 848. the later ones were just about Ducati generally.

The first paid for side adverts – remember these are meant to be smart – were pretty stupid, to be honest. The top one was about property for sale on Yell and then a 6-bed log cabin in Poland. No, I don’t understand that one either. The next three were shopping catalogue sites listing Ducati options.

I tried this again a day later and the results seemed to be more relevant. A bit odd.

Google results: good, just what you’d expect

A page of relevant results. All of which were to do with Ducati 848’s for sale.

The two paid for adverts were shopping comparison sites using “Ducati” and “sale” as keywords and “Ducati 848″.

So from that, I can’t see why anyone would use bing over Google. But there’s more to the choice than that. Let’s take a look at a name search… let’s try my name.

what bing has found about me – number one worldwide!

Well, I’m impressed. The first two hits are me, certainly. My blog and my LANZen website. bing, I’m flattered. Thanks. So for relevance, its good for me. Or is that just an ego trip?

Google’s view of me – not so popular. Neil who?

Well that’s not me. I’ve no interest in property and no connection with either of these results. Strictly from my point of view, I’d have to say Google loses out here.

The background to bing

Unless you’ve been asleep for the last five years, you’ll know that Google and Microsoft are locked in a battle to dominate the Internet. Because that’s where we’ll all be spending our money for the foreseeable future.

Microsoft wants to use its vast marketing treasure chest to win, so Google is responding by fighting Microsoft in its own back yard by producing applications, supporting the Open Source software community, providing open access to its code through Gears and producing operating systems like Android.

Microsoft is fiercely protective of its code so is relying on its traditional install base, partners and incredible marketing clout. Notice I didn’t mention technical expertise here.

You see, Microsoft is struggling with the Internet. It’s policy is to buy in what it needs and assimilate it, Star Trek borg-style, rarely creating original things itself. It’s plan to catch Google by trying to buy the second biggest search engine, Yahoo failed.

Would Yahoo have been stronger with Microsoft?

Had Microsoft had won Yahoo, Yahoo would have been history, killed off. Its clear that the search technology inside Yahoo would have been stripped-out and re-used in bing. Growing share for bing was the game plan all along.

Google on the other hand uses the community model to create a distributed ant-like corporate intelligence network to produce its products. You could say, Google is a collective with a rich sponsor, while Microsoft is a closed shop that’s very rich.

Should we dismiss bing?

No. For two reasons. The first is choice. Love it or hate it, Microsoft offers a real, viable alternative to Google. That’ll help keep Google honest. The second reason is user benefit. Competitive markets always improve the products within them.

Microsoft begins to throw its money around

I’ve always said that Microsoft is a marketing company first and a software company second. If it ever chose to, it would be just as successful selling you dogfood as software. But you’d have to buy Microsoft dogfood as dogs wouldn’t eat anything else!

It clearly feels that its recent loss of market share to its smaller and more agile competitors calls for a change of “face” for the company and has moved its main PR account to WPP’s JWT. In summer 2008, Crispin Porter + Bogusky delivered the “I’m a PC” campaign, showing a more human side to the software giant.

JWT will want to grab some of the Apple-cool attitude displayed by Microsoft’s Internet based competition for the bing launch here in the UK. A marketing budget of $100 Million has been allocated to bing so far.

Let’s hope it works better than the logo, which had a lot of flak for its poor font design.

What does the future hold for Microsoft’s search?

Microsoft doesn’t do things by halves. Its very risk aversed. And its win at all costs attitude rarely fails, even if certain practices have been proven restrictive and anti-competitive.

But this is the first time we have seen Microsoft evenly matched against an adversary and one that’s clearly shown its more than up to the fight. And I can’t wait to see the fireworks.

Bottom line. In 12 months time, will we all be binging or Googling?

I guess we’ll have to wait and see for that one.