Reviews

All Reviews > Software > Internet tools

May 28, 2009

Microsoft Bing review

At last, Bing has arrived. We tested a preview release of Microsoft's new search/decision engine, previously called Kumo, to see how well it compares. Here's a breakdown of its new features and how well they perform.

Bing: New Explorer Pane

Bing's new look focuses on a lefthand navigation menu called the Explorer Pane. This extra column of content includes Quick Tabs that break searches down into Web Groups relevant to your search.

For example, a search on "Nikon D70" triggers the Explorer Pane to create Quick Tabs for shopping, accessories, and videos all based on what your intent might be.

Under Quick Tabs in the Explorer Pane are additional subcategories such as 'Related Searches' and 'Search History'; the latter, as its name implies, shows you recent searches. Microsoft asserts that 50 percent of all searches are repeats, and that providing a session history therefore offers a shortcut to results of redundant searches.

Our take: The Explorer Pane can be extremely useful, which may make the trade-off of cluttering up the search results page worthwhile. But in our initial tests, Quick Tabs often steered me to Microsoft services such as Bing Shopping, Bing Travel, MSN Autos, and Bing health information.

It may be that those Bing sites offer the best content, but we get suspicious of any search engine that habitually gives its own links precedence over others'.

NEXT PAGE: search now categorised

Continued...
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | NEXT >

null

User Reviews

Sunday, 31 May 2009

Reviewed by taranfx

Star Rating: rating of 3

Duration of ownership: 5 days

Strengths:
Good features, good intelligence

Weaknesses:
Not a perfect "smart". Will not be able to give intelligent answers to niche searches.

Overall Evaluation:
I had been analyzing the scope of Bing. Do read my analysis based on facts. http://www.taranfx.com/blog/?p=1003

Keep up to date by adding PC Advisor Reviews to your iGoogle home page or Google Reader

What is this?

Subscribe to PC Advisor now and claim your FREE gift

Advertorial: Get the latest security software

Total reviews: 4,038

See system requirements

expert rating

expert rating

PC Advisor Reader Ratings

3/5

Microsoft Bing

READER REVIEWS


Google

PC Advisor Software Store

Search

Recent reviews

Reviews index


Latest reader reviews

Latest reader reviews


Top news

News index


Latest blog entries

Blogs index


Sponsored Content

  • Take the internet to new places with the Nokia N800
    Communicate how you want to, where you want to with instant messaging, email and internet calling. View movies, browse the internet wirelessly and watch TV on the high-resolution screen and listen through high-quality stereo speakers with headphone jack.
    Buy now