Der Rest der Welt - Tim Ringel

If not everybody would be talking about Twitter, most probably Microsoft would have been able to create an even bigger Buzz with Bing.com. It already (based on latest Twitter reports) overtook Yahoo in the last month but what is the real potential of Bing and how can it really improve the search world?

First of all, we need to sit back and relax! Yes, the internet is super dynamic and of course everything can change over night. But it’s pretty impossible to change search in its very core - As seen with Wolfram Alpha (not really something for the mass market i would say). So Bing can only offer a new experience and of course answer even more specific and use your personal data to profile your needs. Based on that Bing right now combines a lot of usefull tools that Google keeps out of the Core SERPS (search engine result pages) because for performance and for user confusion ressons. The potential of Bing, but also a neck breaking risk, is exactly the combination of results. We are all talking about universal search but is that really new? Don’t we still get just Results and nothing more? If Bing can combine the need of every user to not only get “search results” but furthermore travel engine, book pages, product results and many more information, than there is space in the universe of search engines for a Bing. The question will be, of course not a money problem for Microsoft, will Bing deliver with a good performance and will the Advertisers want Bing to present this data as well as giving cash back?

If we take a deeper look into the online travel market and think of what Bing is basically talking about - we can easily figure out that Bing does not do much more than combine your profile with a travel agency website result page in this vertical. If we would ask airlines and vacancy providers they would not be very happy about that - because most of them are already too dependend on the big travle portals like Orbitz or Expedia and don’t what to expand that kind of cooperation by choice. The target of most travel companies is to connect the consumer directly with it’s brand and portal. Of course the consumer might think different about that but at the end even Bing needs to make money right? So if Bing offers everything that Expedia does, than Expedia doesn’t what to advertise of course neither do the Airline’s want another player in the market. Were does that go? The same question can be asked for Amazon and Ebay - why would these guys want another platform to grow. They already hate eachother to the very Core of beeing and now Bing wants to compet and gove cash back? Sure, Bing doesn’t need to be profitable right away but keeping the Top 10 big spenders on search out - doesn’t sound much fun to me!

Yes, at the end, especially Europe, needs another strong player in search because beeing dependend on Google isn’t fun in an everyday world. Yahoo doesn’t deliver anymore in Europe so yes, we are all very open mind to welcome Bing on the old continent. And also YES, Bing created a Buzz and especially in the Tech Vertical advertising with/on Bing can be a smart move right now because all early adopters will appriciate a move by the big Tech Brands. But the Question stays from my point of view - what does Bing really offer thats not out there? Or is the strategy to combine everything and give a cash back? Will Bing be the next Super Super Super Affiliate?

We will keep an eye on Bing and it’s development - officially from the search agency site of the world - Welcome Bing .. we already miss you!

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