Bing it On!

By Don Davis - Internet Retailer

Search engines account for much of the traffic to retailers’ web sites, and Google dominates search. That means any challenge to Google’s near-monopoly position in search is big news—and potentially good news—for e-retailers.

Google today faces a big challenge indeed, from software giant Microsoft Corp., which threw down the gauntlet June 3 with the launch of its new search engine, Bing. Microsoft is backing up Bing with a major national advertising campaign, has cut deals to make Bing the default search engine on millions of PCs and mobile phones, and says it’s willing to spend billions more to gain search market share.

And there’s one more reason to believe Google finally has a worthy competitor: Microsoft just might have built a better search engine.

Instead of just providing a list of links to web pages, Bing’s search results page categorizes results, makes it easy to refine queries, lets users track queries, provides a glimpse into the web page listed, and summarizes the content of consumer and expert reviews from across the web.

“It’s very cool to see someone making a bold move forward in search,” says Eric Archuleta, CEO of online musical instruments retailer Musician’s Hut. “I’m a fan of Bing. It’s helpful to me to find more information, instead of just an index. It’s going to be a great tool for shoppers.”

He’s not alone in praising Microsoft’s work. Bing “will so improve the search experience that users will demand other engines follow suit,” wrote analyst Shar VanBoskirk of Forrester Research Inc. in a recent report entitled “Bing: The Next Big Search Thing.”

Retailers are also high on Bing for another reason: It could give them an alternative to Google for paid search, and prompt Google, Microsoft and Yahoo to court marketers’ dollars with innovations and better pricing.