Search engine battle moves up a gear

FOR THE past few years Google has been the only search engine in town for all practical purposes. It has been gradually increasing in popularity, and the figures have shown an ever-widening gap between it and the second-placed search engine, Yahoo, with Google commanding a considerable majority share when it comes to searches and getting eyes on pages, writes CIARA O'BRIEN

As always on the internet, however, change is constant. In its relatively short lifetime, internet hierarchies and dominant positions have generally proved to be fleeting.

There have been several highly touted but failed assaults on the command of Google within the vital search sector, which increasingly determines the online behaviour of users. However, the market has experienced something of a shake-up in recent weeks. In particular, there was the launch of Microsoft’s new search engine, Bing. This was followed swiftly by the news that Yahoo was throwing in the towel and teaming up with Microsoft on search and advertising, with Microsoft taking over Yahoo’s search services and technology in a 10-year deal.

Microsoft is hoping Bing will put it back into contention. It certainly means business, with an estimated $100 million (€70 million) marketing blitz accompanying Bing’s launch in the US.

It is a tough battle. The latest figures from web analytics firm StatCounter show that Google still has the overwhelming majority of the global search market, with an 89.23 per cent share in July. Bing has made progress with a 9.41 per cent share, up from 8.23 per cent in June, but most of this gain appears to have come at the expense of Yahoo.

Microsoft is facing a battle against years of ingrained user habits. Describing itself as a “decision engine”, Bing hopes its new way of presenting results will be enough to lure some Google users. And while it retains many familiar features – the links across the top of the page to web, news and image searches, for example – Bing has added a few features it hopes will prove attractive.

Instead of just getting a list of links in your search results with the odd photo, video or map thrown in, you also get a list of related searches in the left column of the page that Bing thinks might be what you’re looking for.

A quick search for a popular band, for example, returned related searches for music, tickets, video, lyrics and photos of the group.

Back in May, just prior to Bing’s launch, Google introduced a Search Options

feature, which creates a similar left-hand panel at the click of a button. However, instead of showing related searches, Google’s panel offers users the chance to refine their queries according to whether they appear on forums, in videos or as reviews. It will also organise results according to the most recent, or within a user-defined date range. For related searches, Google users have the option of the Wonder Wheel, a graphic that shows suggested topics alongside the standard results.

There are some areas in which Bing has improved on Google. Its image search is slightly more user-friendly, allowing you to view a continuous page of results rather than forcing you click through and wait for pages of image results to load one at a time. It also allows you to choose your preferred thumbnail size and, when you hover over an image with the cursor, it will zoom in slightly. The image results can also be refined: you can search for black-and-white shots versus colour, or head-and-shoulder images instead of just faces, and you can specify the size, layout and type of image.

Bing also builds in new features such as a webpage preview. We’ve all had false starts in web searching – when a page suggested by a search engine turns out to be not exactly what you thought. Without leaving the results page, Bing shows you a few paragraphs from the webpage in a popup box, and a few of the links contained on the page.

Google, on the other hand, offers the “more text” option in Google Search Options, which expands the standard page description and adds a paragraph or two. Unlike the Bing page preview, however, it does not include other links contained on the webpage for all results.

There are still some areas in which Bing has to get up to speed if it is to mount a serious challenge to Google’s global dominance.

Google’s local search, in Europe at least, appears to be superior to Bing’s, returning more relevant results for Ireland on the same search terms. “Doctor”, for example, returns local business results on Google, but only a list of websites on Bing.

Google also uses its maps feature to enhance its search results, pinpointing businesses in searches where relevant.

Bing searches have yet to include this feature – or it has yet to appear in any test searches conducted for this article.

However, the search engine is only in beta in Europe at the moment, with certain functions absent from Bing.ie. The missing features include the shopping pages, which provide summarised information on some products in the results, including ratings, prices and photographs. This was one of the more heavily touted features of the Microsoft product.

Unlike Google, you cannot specifically search for videos yet – at least not in Ireland. Video searches, while possible through the web interface, lack a clip preview facility, as seen in Bing’s US launch.

Microsoft representatives have said they intend a full version of Bing to go live in Europe – it is just not yet clear when that will happen. Until then, Google will inevitably retain its leadership position.

Google v Bing

GOOGLE

• Related searches can be found on the graphical "Wonder Wheel"
• Google Search Options refines results according to time and where they appear (eg forum, review), and adds extra text to results
• Specific video search is included
• Maps included in search results

BING

• Related searches appear in the left-hand column
• Webpage previews within the search engine cut down on wasted page clicks
• Image search eliminates need to click through pages of results, which can be refined according to image type, size and other criteria
• Still in beta in Ireland, so not all features are available yet