Bing Search Engine and Global/Local Search
Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009How does Microsoft’s new search engine—Bing–deal with search in different countries
If you are wondering why I am comparing Bing in different countries—see my previous blog post.
The first thing I like to do is see what a search engine thinks of itself. Even though there are a lot of Bings (Bing Crosby, Bing Energy Drink, etc) it is expected that the search engine will rank first which it does. However in the News section right below, Mayor Bing of Detroit, outranks it.
Bing results for Bing are also populated by Bing’s Twitter and Facebook accounts.
Bing Shows all things Bing—twitter, facebook—and the Canadian version. Click to enlarge.
Google doesn’t think too much of Bing. It gives it top billing but doesn’t include the twitter and facebook links. Click to enlarge.
Regarding Global search, the 3rd result in Bing for Bing is Bing’s Canadian site. I expect that this is a bug and will be corrected soon. If we take the bait and go to Bing Canada we get a nice home page although the background photo looks more like Greece than Canada.
Bing Search Engine in Canada is apparently located in Greece. Click to enlarge.
Let’s go inside. When we search for Bing from Canada the News moves up. I guess Canadians value news more that the Americans—or at least Bing thinks so. The Canadian version of Bing is in the number 2 position although the URL is not as nice as Google’s Canadian version, which is more intuitive and uses the Canadian country TLD.
The Canadians are also on the move more. Bing mobile is the no. 3 entry, whereas in the US version it is not even on the 1st page.
Notice the related searches on the left hand side. These also change when we compare different countries. There are a lot more campgrounds, parks and retreats—although the first 4 results are not even in Canada. Bing knows that Canadians are more interested in nature and recreation.
Canadian results emphasize News and the mobile Bing. Click to enlarge.
Bing’s suggestions are not localized judging from the one test we did. The same results come up for the USA, Canada and India.
Suggestions are not localize. Click to enlarge.
I also like how the language options are integrated. Americans have a Spanish option in the top right corner and Canadians have a French option.
By the way, here are instructions on how to get your blog listed in Bing.
Enough with Bing—Let’s try Shoes
Shoe results are interesting. You get 20 results instead of the usual default 10 for the same price in the USA (left screen shot below). US shoe buyers get the Bing results categorized:
- Shoes Brands
- Styles of Shoes
- Top 10 Shoes (this is a weird one—look for yourselves)
- Shoes Buying Guide
- Reviews of Shoes
- Shop for shoes (with photos and prices)
In India, no such luck. There is no categorization and only 10 results. There are no pictures or prices. However, you do get a couple of ads at the top. And more results: 191,000,000 vs. only 151,000,000 in the USA. Google has 278,000,000 results in the United States vs. 280,000,000 in India. So no matter what search engine you prefer, if you like to be thorough–use the India search engines.
Bing breaks up the search results into categories in the United States (on left). In India (on right) you get less results on the page but more total results to surf through. Click to enlarge.
