Microsoft's Bing Decision Engine Live June 3rd

Just what the world needs, right? Another search engine. Before you just pass Microsoft's efforts up as futile, we should point out that 'Bing' does actually look rather promising. Of course, Wolfram Alpha is but a long lost memory in most minds by now, so it remains to be seen how much traction Bing will receive when staring down the almighty Google.


Smartly, Microsoft has angled Bing as to not be a direct competitor to Google. Instead, it's being described as a Decision Engine and consumer brand, which aims to provide users with a "first step in moving beyond search to help make faster, more informed decisions." Think Decision Support System, but for the everyday Joe. Essentially, this new engine builds on today's most advanced search techniques and provides tools to help customers make better decisions.

Initially, Bing will focus on four key vertical areas: making a purchase decision, planning a trip, researching a health condition or finding a local business. It's not surprising to see why Microsoft would choose those four at first -- after all, we'd wager that a huge majority of searches that lead to decisions are centered around one of those four. Microsoft is hoping that Bing will allow Internet users to more easily wade through the massive amount of information they're faced with on every search, with data showing that around 30% of all searches are abandoned without a satisfactory result. Furthermore, around two-thirds of the remaining searches required a refinement or requery on the search results page. Obviously, Bing hopes to make that a thing of the past by adding efficiency to the process.


Bing.com currently leads to a nice demonstration video, but Microsoft hopes to have the site fully deployed worldwide on June 3rd.