Bing’s 5 Features that give it a shot against Google

Finally Microsoft has launched its most awaited search engine, Bing in the market. It's a fitting image given Microsoft's desire to lift search off what it considers the ground level. In a speech last week at the unveiling of Bing, Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer called current search one-dimensional and said Bing will help people "find information quickly and use the information they've found to accomplish tasks."

The software giant plans to do this by categorizing results according to best match and not popularity, and also by pulling related searches and information that's buried in a site onto the results page. Microsoft vows to display more information on the page in a more organized way than the competition (i.e. Google).

Google is a dominant force in search, with a market share of 64%, according to comScore's April search rankings.

If Microsoft has any chance of reducing Google's lead, it will be through Bing's organization of information and images on the results pages and by helping people find local restaurants, book flights, shop for a digital camera or find treatments for the flu better than Google.

Also, aggressive marketing will help. Microsoft plans to invest close to $100 million in an advertising campaign for Bing.

But what are the specific features on which Microsoft is banking its search, excuse me, "decision" future? Here are five features that Microsoft hopes will make Bing a household verb.

Explorer Pane

To show more information on the results page, Microsoft uses what's called an Explorer Pane in Bing. It's a navigation menu that runs down the left hand column of the page that offers different categories depending on your search. For example, if your search word is "Boston", in addition to the list of links on the main page, automated categories appear in the Explorer Pane such as Map, Tourism, Attractions, Restaurants, Weather and Images. If the search term is "Barack Obama", the categories under the Explorer Pane are Images, Biography, Family, Library, Interview and Timeline.

Underneath these so-called Quick Tabs in the Explorer Pane are subcatgories "Related Searches" and a "Search History" of your most recent search terms.

Categorized Search Results

Another feature meant to keep searches organized is Bing's categorized search results, which takes the categories from the Explorer Pane and uses them as headings to break up the search results on the center page into groups.

A search for Barack Obama returns images across the top accompanied by what Bing thinks are the most relevant links below. These links are not sorted or categorized. But the links below that are grouped into sections with the headers Barack Obama's Biography, Barack Obama's Family, Barack Obama's Library, Barack Obama's Interview, and Barack Obama's Timeline. These headers a clickable and link to additional sites related to the subject.

Quick Previews/Hover

When you hover the mouse over a small orange dot to the right of links on a results page, a box appears with a text-based summary of what's on that site. The preview box may also include links to other parts of the site or at least a "Go to this Page" link.

Here, Microsoft aims to speed up access to the information people want. Microsoft's research has shown that 42% of searches require refinement, and 25% of clicks are the back button.

New Video Search

The user interface for Bing's Video search has been tweaked to simplify the grouping of videos from content providers such as Hulu and YouTube.

You'll see a few differences between Bing and Google when it comes to video. One is the layout. Bing video results spread across the page while Google's run down the left side. Click a small video icon in Bing -- small video icons in Bing start playing when you mouse over them. Google does not have this feature -- and the video plays in full across the top of the page. Google plays full videos on the right side of the page.

Also, Bing allows you to search for videos by length, screen size, resolution, and source, which includes content providers Hulu, YouTube, ESPN, MTV and of course MSN. Google does not provide this type of search for video.

Airfare and Hotel Search

Microsoft support is using its 2008 acquisition of Farecast to try to surpass Google on airfare and hotel search. Farecast provides a tool that compares airfares by using an algorithm that recommends the best time to buy tickets. The Farecast technology is integrated with Bing search results so airfare deals are displayed on the page.

Farecast also works with hotel reservations and can be used to display hotel "deals" on the page when you search for hotels in a particular city. Microsoft says Bing, using the Farecast technology, estimates the going rate of a room at a certain hotel and compares it to the price being offered to figure out if it's a deal.

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Google Australia launches new services

Google Australia has announced a range of new services, including free access to Fairfax newspapers dating back to the late 1800s.

The search engine will allow users to browse digital copies of newspapers including The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, which will appear online exactly as they were first printed.

"Newspapers are a trusted source of information, but in many cases this information has been locked away, and only accessible through microfilm," Google Australia and New Zealand general manager Karim Temsamani said.

"This is a great example of how technology and news media can work together to benefit all Australians."

Google also said it would make available timetables for Sydney's light rail and monorail, and Canberra's buses on Google Maps from June.

Users will be able to plan their trips from listings of departure times and route information.

The new services are a sign of the rapid development of Google Australia since 2002, when Kate Vale - now head of YouTube - was its single employee working from home.

The search engine will also launch its new communication program, Google Wave, at the end of the month.

"It's a mixture of email, instant message and YouTube. It's a whole new approach to online conversations," said Google Australia's head of engineering Alan Noble.

The launch has coincided with the official opening on Monday of Google Australia's new offices in Pyrmont, by Governor-General Quentin Bryce.

"It's a fabulous, exciting design, at the heart of this vibrant and much loved Australian city," she said.

"I thank (Google) for its outstanding contribution to Australia's economy, culture and progress."

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Search wars: WolframAlpha joins the battle

The ongoing battle of browsers is still on fire. And now the battle of search engines is heating up.

Microsoft is relaunching its search engine with new bells and whistles. Yahoo is getting away from results being generated as straight links and newcomer WolframAlpha has just released an "answer engine," designed to do just that...provide answers.

With a 64.2% market share, according to comScore, Google is the clear leader when it comes to online search. Experts say rivals like Yahoo (20.4% market share) and Microsoft (8.2% market share) will need to find ways of differentiating themselves in order to make a sizable dent.

Google's dominance in search goes even deeper than the market share numbers generated by comScore, said Aggarwal. Google gets most of its traffic from searches made directly on Google.com, while 98% of Yahoo's and Microsoft's traffic comes through portals like MSN and Yahoo Finance rather than searches on Yahoo.com and Live.com, he said.

That means competitors have an even steeper hill to climb, because "googling" has become synonymous with "search."

"We're creatures of habit," said Susan Feldman, search engine analyst with IDC. "The tech aspects of improving search are not as hard as improving the 'people' aspects."

Microsoft. Is on the cusp of unveiling its new search engine under the code-name "Kumo" though it is expected to ultimately be called "Bing." Aggarwal, who has tested the new search engine, said Bing improves the relevance of its links and presents search results differently from Google, Yahoo and even from Microsoft's current search engine, Live.com.

Bing is set up to organize search results in relevant groups rather than as a series of links. For instance, a search for "fly to New York," may yield New York destinations like hotels, restaurants and museums as almost a guidebook page. The same search on Live.com generates straight individual links that users have to go through one by one.

Aggarwal said Bing may have chance at becoming a "destination" Web site like Google, because the site's technology has been better tested.

"Live wasn't ready for prime time because the technology was too premature" and users weren't repeat customers, he said. "Now Microsoft thinks they're ready."

Yahoo. Yahoo is tinkering with the types of results that come up after a search.

The company is trying to provide information, including images and answers from databases, rather than a long series of links, according to analysts. For example, a search on Yahoo.com for "Star Trek" brings up an image with the movie trailer, a review, and a zip code/address box that will bring up local show times.

WolframAlpha. When WolframAlpha launched last week, there was a buzz that it could become the next Google "killer." But the company maintains that WolframAlpha isn't even a search engine. A query on WolframAlpha.com yields calculations and database results rather than links to other Web pages.

"It really is meant to supplement search, not to be a search competitor," said John Ekizian, spokesman for WolframAlpha. "WolframAlpha will always give you the right answer, and that's a lot different than search."

"People's search queries are getting longer over time," said Andrew Lipsman, director of industry analysis at comScore. "This might bode well for an engine like WolframAlpha, which appears designed to handle more detailed search queries."

Google. While competitors are nipping at Google's heels, the search giant isn't standing still.

"Search is not done, and Google is not the be-all and end-all of search engines," said Howe. "Google would agree, and that's why they're constantly making changes too."

Marissa Mayer, Google's vice president of search products, told CNNMoney that Google released more than 360 relevance changes to improve the search engine last year.

Google continues to explore new ways to grow. "Search is a very competitive space, so for us there's always pressure to be better," said Mayer. "You need to keep up that pace of innovation."

New innovations like Google Squared, which will allow users to view searches in a matrix form on their screen, and Google voice search are in the works, she said.

Still, some think that Google's competitors are getting close to taking away some of Google's dominant market shares.

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New and better - Firefox 3.5

Over the last year or so, Firefox has become better known in tech savvy circles for its relatively poor performance and mediocre memory management. Chrome's insane speed and Internet Explorer 8's overall improvement have also dinged Firefox's reputation. But now, Firefox 3.5 is almost ready to go.

I downloaded the latest beta, Firefox 3.5 beta 4, to explore it for myself. I used it on two different PCs. The first was my workhouse Windows XP SP2 system, and the other was my Dell laptop. The XP box was a Dell Inspiron 530S with a 2.2-GHz Intel Pentium E2200 dual-core processor, 4GBs of RAM, a 500GB SATA drive and an Integrated Intel 3100 GMA (Graphics Media Accelerator). For laptop, I used a Gateway GT5622 desktop with a 1.8GHz Intel Pentium E2160 dual-core CPU, 3GBs of RAM, a 400GB SATA drive, and an Intel 950 GMA.

On both systems, installing the browser took less than three minutes. Once installed, I found that my two must-have Firefox extensions the Google Toolbar and XMarks were both working.

However, on Windows, I found that two other extensions were DOA. These were the AVG Safe Search 8.5 malware detector and the Microsoft .NET Framework Assistant 1.0. I wasn't too surprised by either one. The AVG program has had issues with other versions of Firefox and the .NET Framework program has always been a pain.

Unlike Google Chrome, Firefox has a mature family of extensions. I really like Chrome a lot, but it's still taking baby steps when it comes to using extensions for added functionality.

Where Chrome still zooms by Firefox is when it comes to rendering speed. That's especially true when it comes to JavaScript-heavy pages. Firefox 3.5's TraceMonkey JavaScript rendering engine is much faster than what you'll find in the Firefox 3.0 series and Internet Explorer doesn't belong in the performance conversation.

Still Chrome 2.0's V8 JavaScript engine beats TraceMonkey handily. Using the SunSpider JavaScript Benchmark on the Microsoft windows xp system, Firefox 3.5 was almost twice as slow as Chrome 2.0 at the benchmark with a recorded time of 1,225.6-millisecond to Chrome 2.0's 704.0. If speed is what matters the most to you, Chrome is the browser for you.

On the other hand, after running Firefox for days and with multiple windows and tabs, I found that on both Windows and Linux, Firefox is finally not hogging memory. Even with the debugging code that must be in a beta, I found that Firefox is no longer leaking memory. That's good for both the browser's stability and its security.

Firefox now supports embedded Ogg and WAV video and audio format without the need for a helper program. It also far better privacy settings so you can use your own, or any other, computer without leaving any traces behind of what you've been doing. 

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The all new Google Chrome 2.0

Google has upgraded its Chrome 2.0 Web browser from being in test mode (beta) to its final version ready for download and general use. With this latest update, compared to early beta 2.0 releases of the browser, Google adds new features including full-screen mode, an improved new tab page, and the support for auto-fill of text within Web page forms.

Google says if you already are running Google Chrome  browser will be automatically updated to the final 2.0 release "soon." Otherwise, to download the latest version you can get it directly from the Google Chrome download page.

This update comes six months after Google announced the final version of Google Chrome 1.0. Google Chrome 2.0 was first previewed in January in beta form. Google developers say they have squashed over 300 bugs from earlier Chrome 2.0 beta releases. Google is also touting this latest version of Google Chrome as "faster than ever" able to render JavaScript-heavy Web pages 30 percent faster than it previous version of Chrome. (see releated: Google Chrome Is Fastest Browser in Site-Loading Tests)

Here are the new features introduced on Thursday with the final Google Chrome 2.0 release:

Improved New Tab Page: Give you the ability to remove thumbnails from the New Tab page. This allows you to, as Google put it: "hide that embarrassing gossip blog from the Most Visited section."

Full Screen Mode: In this mode you can hide the title bar and the rest of the browser window by hitting F11 or selecting the option in the Tools menu.

Form Autofill: This feature, a staple in Internet Explorer and Firefox, auto-fills text boxes in Web page forms with information you've previously entered.

Google released a short video outlining the latest improvements to the final release of Chrome 2.0.

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