Posted By Industrial Web Solutions Marketing Team on June 5, 2009

Microsoft’s new search engine, Bing was recently launched, and we here at Industrial Web Talk wanted to see just what it might mean to Industrial Manufacturers.  Now, we know that when most people talk about search engines, they talk about Google.  And rightly so.  Google has a huge market share, and it became the term most people use for search.  You “Google” something.  So, like Kleenex and Q-Tips, the brand has become ever present in our minds.

Microsoft aims to change that, though.  And some of the features they have are pretty impressive.  They seem to be aiming at retail shoppers, people looking at flights, and that sort of thing.  But where does that leave industrial manufacturers?  Well, we decided to run some tests.  Here’s what we have found out so far.

First – our Twitter Friend srmonte wanted to know if we found her company Flexcon using a combination of pressure sensitive adhesive and tape keywords.  We didn’t.    But, what we did find is that the majority of the top entries were relevant.  So at first blush, Bing seems to be delivering results that would be useful to the user.

Then, because we know where we are in Google for a few terms at Industrial Web Search, we decided to put them head to head.  Now, because positions vary regionally (people in California might see a result in position 8, whereas people in Forida see it at 5 or 11) I am only going for first page results.  Let’s see how they compare.  A yes means we are on the first page for the term, a no means we are not.

• GIGe cables – Google: Yes.  Bing: No.
• lvds cameras – Google: Yes.  Bing: No.
• Industrial Search – Google: Yes.  Bing: Yes.
• 52100 ball – Google: Yes.  Bing: No.

So – what does this mean?  Well, at first glance it would seem as though Google likes us more than Bing does.  But that is a short sighted view.  The fact is that Bing would not be doing its job if it mirrored Google’s results.  It needs to serve its customers in the way it believes is best, so its algorithms will be different. Does that mean you need to panic and start worrying about optimizing for Bing?  Not at all.  Not yet.  It is new, and the fact is that we don’t know yet if it is going to catch on.  It has some great features. It might end up getting a seat at the table.  But in the short term, we say to observe and when you start seeing Bing in your stats (if you use Google Analytics, it does not show up in the search engine section yet, only the referring sites section) then you should start looking at what the engine can give you for qualified leads.

We would love to know what you are seeing for results between Bing and Google.  Put some of your findings in the comments!

Categories: industrial search engines, Technology
Tags: Microsoft Bing, search engines