Redmond, Washington — In a fresh tussle with its arch rival Google, software colossus Microsoft is challenging Google head on with a new promotion designed to help unseat the search giant from its lofty perch. The campaign entitled ‘Bing It On‘, which is intended to convince searchers accustomed to Googling that Binging is better.
Microsoft’s notion behind ‘Bing It On’ is very simple. Part of that is a site, which asks users to enter a search query of their choice and are then presented with two sets of results. Next, it asks you to choose which result do you prefer, and the whole process repeats a further four times. After five rounds, the tool reveals whether your picked Bing or Google for each one. The one you picked the most, must be your search engine of choice.
In fact, it is a fascinating analogy of organic search results between the two rivals, but it strips out large parts of the user experience for both search engines.
More so, the company claims that it has improved the applicability of its search results over the past few years, but that due to old search habits, many people never even give Bing a try. Microsoft commissioned Answers Research out of San Diego to do a study involving 1,000 people, which the company is touting as showing people prefer Bing results over Google’s, 2-to-1. Microsoft argued that in recent months, “our testing showed that Bing’s web search results were better than Google’s.”
“Our mission is to show people it is time to break the ‘Google addiction’ and that Bing has reached a quality level that will make it easy to switch,” Microsoft wrote in a blog post.
However, these searches does not include Google’s Knowledge Graph or Bing’s social bar, for instance. Thus, it is hardly an impeccable representation of today’s search experience for either engine.
Besides, the software maker is greatly advocating the new campaign via nationwide TV and online ads over the weekend during MTV’s Video Music Awards. It also plans to feature the campaign in its Microsoft retail stores and pop-up Bing It On Challenge “stations” across the U.S. Microsoft is using the hashtag #bingiton on Twitter to push the campaign, as well.
“Share matters in terms of machine learning and to our online advertisers,” said Stefan Weitz, senior director of Bing.
Meanwhile, carrying out search for the Nokia Lumia, also unveiled similar results. In fact, both search engines had recent news stories about the smartphone atop the page, followed by links to Nokia’s Lumia webpages. Though Bing included images and videos for the Lumia, where as Google produced shopping links.
On the other hand, the software behemoth also is launching the Bing It On sweepstakes, with prizes including a Microsoft Surface, Windows 8, an Xbox 360 with Kinect for Xbox 360 and Xbox LIVE, a Windows Phone. To enter, users are required to tweet a designated Bing It On Challenge tweet. The sweepstakes will run until October 18, with more details available at http://www.bingsweeps.com.
The objective with the campaign, said Weitz, is simply “to induce users to take a look again at Bing. We want them to see Google’s magic secret search sauce is not really so magic.”
Nevertheless, Bing deserves a bigger share of the search market, and ‘Bing It On’ could certainly help change a few people’s minds on the Google alternative. It could, but it probably would not. And if you were wondering whether Mark Penn — the most celebrated Washington pollster and strategist hired by Microsoft — had a hand in the latest Bing campaign, Weitz said the answer is no. The Bing It On Challenge was already in process before Penn joined Microsoft in July, with one of his first assignments being to work on growing Bing’s share.
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