What is Bing? Everything You Need to Know

What does Bing mean?

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Bing is a resourceful search engine tool owned by Microsoft. It displays accurate results based on the user's search query. It sets forth a couple of search services. Key among them include web, image, video, and map results. Bing is very well known for its listings capability. It can give you comprehensive results about all the restaurants around your block.

Here's is a brief history.

Bing was announced on 28th May 2009 by Microsoft CEO, Steve Ballmer and officially launched in July, the same year. Bing came into existence so as to face out Live Search and MSN Search. To enhance a smooth transition, Microsoft bought Powerset, a company which was developing an organic language search engine for the internet space. And to close the deal, Microsoft and Yahoo came into terms to let Bing power Yahoo! Search Engine.

If we look at Bing's stock market price, it's quite evident that it's not so much behind from its closest rival, Google.

Pros and Cons of Bing

The decision of whether you should be using Bing (Microsoft Search) or something else as your search bar solution depends on a range of factors. For instance, pricing for PPC ads can often be lower on Bing because there’s not as much competition in the search market. However, a lot of searchers prefer to use Google because Bing isn’t as good at figuring out the context around a query when presenting answers in the SERPS.

Pros of Bing include:

  • Access to information outside of search, such as historical events, interesting images, and news
  • Fantastic video indexing for searchers and webmaster users
  • Easier to filter through image search
  • An aesthetically pleasing UI, thanks to Windows live search technology
  • Easier to attract older, wealthier searchers if you’re a business owner
  • Frequently updates with new features to compete against Google and Google Chrome

Cons:

  • Bing ranks forum sites lower in favor of older, more established sites
  • Bing isn’t as good at understanding intent and context
  • Bing doesn’t offer as much reach for companies

If you’re looking for a holistic experience of the internet that’s heavy on information and news, then Bing might be perfect for you. Bing could also be great for PPC for companies who want to reach older, more affluent audiences. However, this search engine won’t appeal to everyone.

Bing's Notable Features

Bing background images

We can't ignore its intuitive user-interface which draws lots of attention from its users. And here's why. Bing has beautiful background images which change on a daily basis. The wide array of images are displayed to give a depiction of what the user can visibly relate to. For instance, Bing shows background images of people, adventurous places like mountains, sea life or even popular cities.

You can easily leverage off these images by setting your most preferred as your desktop background.

Bing Rewards

Bing Rewards was launched back in 2010. It's pretty much impressive how Bing incorporates this as part of the equation. Seems like Bing is both conscious and generous to its users. Simply put, a user gets to earn credits whenever they search with Bing as an incentive to keep on using the search engine. This strategy has tremendously increased Bing's market share, precisely, in the US.

All you need to do is sign in to your Microsoft account via a PC or Tablet. From this point, you gain access to the number of points which are redeemable.

What's more captivating is Bing's App which is available on both Apple and Google Play stores. By use of this App, you can just search for anything and earn points at the comfort of your mobile phone.

Bing Rewards Loyalty Levels

The search engine has a systematic formula to give back to its users. It's quite obvious that the uppermost level comes with the most reward amount. The entry level which is the ‘Member' plan, is accessible to all new users who reside in the US and are above 13 years of age. It's worth noting that a user is restricted to only one member account.

At the top of its priority, is the capacity to reward a user 1 credit for every two searches performed. Remember, Bing gives a daily maximum reward of 10 credits.

So how do I upgrade to the silver account?

Bing requires me to meet a set threshold which is, I must earn 200-lifetime credits. The status of my account changes to Silver after I've redeemed my very first reward. That aside, there's a Gold account, which becomes active, once a user earns 750-lifetime credits and performs over 150 credible searches in a month.

Bing visual search

This is one feature which tends to be quite futuristic. So here's what it's capable of. You can actually snap a photo of a math problem, or a specific spare part of a vehicle, and search to get the most authentic and definite results. In other words, you can just use an image to search for anything on Bing. Importantly, the profound search engine brings about a whole new experience of privacy control in the hands of the user. You can switch the private mode on to hide all your private searches from your browser's history.

Bing Timeline

It's a feature which filters results to show you important information via a well-detailed timeline. Bing's algorithm generates timelines about famous personalities and captures all their achievements in an elaborate manner. Here's an illustration. If you search the names iconic individuals, say for instance, from an athletics background, Bings lays out a prolific list of all their accomplishments in the entire course of their career.

Video Pop-out Hover

Yet another amazing feature which unfolds a seamless experience while searching for videos on Bing. Typically, Bing shows you high-resolution videos from popular platforms such as YouTube, MTV, Hulu, CBS, and MSN. Its navigation system is quite flexible and easy to use while checking out the previews.

Bing has advanced search filters which allow a user to class the videos by date, resolution, source, or length. We can't ignore Bing's preview mode which lets the user have a brief snippet of the contents in a video.

Bing Ads

Seems like Microsoft is wary and privy to all current trends. With the prevalence of Google Ads in so many webpages, this was some sort of an awakening call for Microsoft. To gain a stable ground in the industry, Microsoft Advertising was brought into the limelight.

And their biggest promise is to make your business visible to potential customers globally. I know you might want to ask this. Why do I need a Bing Ads conversion tracking account when already, I have a Google Analytics account in check? Good question. The reason for this is to have a good track of all conversions which come directly from your Bing Ads. Keep in mind, it uses the pay-per-click strategy. This means you can work with a budget which you're comfortable with.

The paid Ads help you reach the online network in such a brainy and well-informed way. Favorably, Microsoft advertising allows the user to import other campaigns such as Google Ads in a plain-sailing manner.

Bing's Integration

In the present moment, Bing splits the search results to have a section which lists a number of Facebook friends who can enlighten the user more about the query. Besides that, Windows 8.1 uses Bing's ‘smart search' to show results for all queries submitted via the Window's start screen.

And that's not all. There's more to Bing's integration.

Back in 2013, Apple's unexpected frenzy to ditch Google and make close ties with Bing was the beginning of a new chapter for the search engine. However, it's compatible with devices which use iOS 7 and above.

Bing Vs Google

It's a never-ending battle where each contender shows its own strengths, prowess, and intelligence. At the first instance, it's reasonable to state that both are exceptional in their own ways. But since Bing is the topic of the day, let's see how it proves to transcend over Google. Not to mention the alluring Bing rewards.

To begin with, Bing's prediction capacity is one thing to smile about. In particular, it shows its sharp-wittedness by predicting flight costs. To a greater extent, it predicts whether a flight cost will increase. Aside from that, you get to make comparisons with other flight companies to decide upon the most suitable Airline and time to purchase a ticket.

Arguably, making a choice between Bing and Google narrows down to personal preferences. If you're more interested in image and video search, Bing tends to be so competent at it. On the other hand, it's right to give credit where it's due. Google dominates by a significant margin since it owns YouTube. That's not to say that Bing doesn't give a helping hand in video searches. As a matter of fact, its unique layout of video thumbnails which plays a preview of a specific result is one spectacular feature to really count on.

If a user wants to search for a licensed image to use in their blog or project, Bing makes it easier by far. Unlike Google, where the settings to filter the images are hidden, Bing provides a license filter as a primary option while searching for an image.

 

Pros of Google include:

  • Support for intelligent voice search and smart speakers
  • Understands the internet behind your query
  • Prioritizes fresh and relevant content over long-term presence
  • Accessible on any device
  • Specific verticals help you to find what you need
  • Fun and attractive search box
  • High amount of personalization available
  • Possible to get gift cards for PPC search

Cons:

  • Robust and competitive ad platform
  • May be harder to get ahead than with Microsoft’s search engine
  • Constantly improving algorithm is difficult to keep with
  • Very susceptible to potential spam on Google maps
  • Tracks a lot of personal data for search

Bing vs DuckDuckGo

Bing search is quickly gaining more attention as companies look for ways to broaden their horizons in the search engine landscape. Bing also offers a variety of interesting benefits to customers who want to improve their searching experience. However, it’s not the only option out there.

If you don’t want to use Bing, and you’re not sure about Google either, then you could consider an entirely different search engine, like DuckDuckGo. DuckDuckGo ranks as one of the top alternatives to Google search, while Bing.com seems to appeal to an awfully specific audience.

At first glance, the DuckDuckGo homepage might look like any standard default search engine, this solution offers a range of interesting features you don’t get elsewhere.

For instance, while Google search might be the king of SEO and reach ecommerce store owners, DuckDuckGo is the leader in web browsing privacy.

DuckDuckGo can show you what’s trending in the news and match Bing’s result for most desktop search requests. However, the decision engine doesn’t attach your searches to any personal identifier. That means that the service doesn’t build any pictures of what results you like and dislike. There are no automatic cookies turned on, and no personal IP addresses saved to your browser.

DuckDuckGo also has a host of unique features that you may not find elsewhere. For instance, !Bangs allows you to directly search within other websites from DuckDuckGo. Typing Amazon after the ! in a DuckDuckGo search will allow you to search for products specifically on Amazon.

Similar to many popular search engines, you can use DuckDuckGo on Firefox, Internet Explorer, Chrome, and many other browser options, including iPhone and Android web browsers.

DuckDuckGo Pros include:

  • Privacy: DuckDuckGo doesn’t collect any data on your online searches. You can have complete privacy when you’re searching online.
  • No ads to target you based on previous searches
  • No social engineering techniques that can work on you based on searches
  • You get the same results as other users without profiling
  • 1 results page with infinite scrolling
  • Easy to use just like any Google, or Microsoft search engine
  • Simple to search through the results page

DuckDuckGo Cons:

  • Not as many features as Google
  • No Search bar extras like Google Flights and Google Maps
  • Less personalization can be a problem as it doesn’t remember your preferences

Rebekah Carter

Rebekah Carter is an experienced content creator, news reporter, and blogger specializing in marketing, business development, and technology. Her expertise covers everything from artificial intelligence to email marketing software and extended reality devices. When she’s not writing, Rebekah spends most of her time reading, exploring the great outdoors, and gaming.

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