Bing is the Microsoft's search engine that has its origins in MSN Search and Windows Live Search. Bing replaced the previous Microsoft's search engine, Live Search, which is available from June 1, 2009.
Although Google is the most popular search engine in the world, what makes Bing different is its emphasize on aesthetic quality. Bing has also become the alternative search engine in recent years for its efficiency and utility.
If you access the search engine's homepage, you will be presented with a beautiful homepage. The homepage features image that changes daily. At the bottom of the homepage, you can access the latest recent news on the web. If you keep scrolling down, you will see the Image of the Day, which can be downloaded to your computer to be used as a wallpaper. You can give your favorite to the image or share it through the social media thanks to the search engine's inclusive social media integration.
Microsoft has designed Bing with beauty in mind. Bing's results pages are visually attractive. It is clean and neat, makes it appealing to the eyes. Some said that the Microsoft's search engine look like Google in the past. The page is uncluttered and few ads are visible.
Bing has also teamed up with Yahoo! since July 2009. In this ten-year deal, Bing would replace the Yahoo! search engine while retaining the Yahoo! interfaces. The deal also includes that Yahoo! will get to keep 88% of the revenue from ads sales for the first five years of the deal and the right to sell advertising on some Microsoft websites. The transition is made in the early 2012. However, the deal is altered in 2015, in which Yahoo! only requires to use the Bing for majority of searches.
Bing has some features that makes it more visually engaging:
1. Daily changing image of background image
As it is mentioned before, the image on the Bing's homepage changes daily. The image mostly features noteworthy natural landscape, although occasionally it also includes animals, people, and sports. The image sometimes also changes to celebrate the national events, such as the American independence day of Fourth of July. The search engine emphasizes to bring a visually informative search page to its users.
2. Bing has video thumbnail preview
Video thumbnail preview is not something you can find on Google. In Bing, if the result page contains videos, you can hover over the thumbnails and the video will play automatically. It is a really convenient way to get preview over the videos before you click the link to the videos.
3. Advanced image searches
Users can refine their search results using the filter function. They can select the properties from the image size, color, type, layout, people, data, and license to enhance their search results. Multiple suggestions will be given above the image search results to find images with related keywords.
4. Advanced video search
For me personally, searching video in Bing is much more convenient than in Google. The videos are displayed in thumbnails, and you can see the preview if you hover over the video (although the preview is not available in all videos). There is save button where you can instantly save the videos to your Bing account. In the filter, you can also choose the duration of the video, the published date, resolution, source, and price of the video. You can also check the related keywords on the top of the video search results.
Microsoft has designed Bing to provide instant answers. If you type "NBA" to the search box, you will get instant results about the latest match and scores on the search results' first page. Bing also can display the scores from a specific day and statistics of the teams or players. The Microsoft's search engine is really powerful in providing updated informative news to its users.
Bing can be used to search for local info as well. Bing can provide current traffic information, business listing, people listing, real estate listings, collections, localized searching for restaurants and services, restaurant reviews, movies played in the area, and hotel listings. For instance, if you type apartments in Washington DC, you will get lists of apartments, their locations, room types, and the prices. You can also directly check the reviews and ratings from people.
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