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Welcome to the ineedhits Search Engine Marketing blog, where we share the latest search engine and online marketing news, releases, industry trends and great DIY tips and advise.
A study from analysts Citigroup may resolve the question of the moment: Is Bing a better search engine than Google?
The study compared 200 queries on the Google, Yahoo and Bing search engines. So without further ado, the winner is…. Google! Actually, the results are quiet convincing in that Google is much better at returning relevant results than Bing and Yahoo. Google returned the most relevant result 71 percent of the time, compared with Bing at 49 percent of the time and Yahoo! 30 percent of the time.
Citigroup’s Mark Mahaney explains their methodology for the study:
Over the past two weeks, we conducted 200 queries across the three major Search engines–Google, Yahoo! and Bing. Most of the queries we picked came from Google Zeitgeist, Microsoft’s xRank and Yahoo! Buzz, along with some personal queries. These queries spanned multiple categories, including Entertainment, Health, Local, News, Retail, Sports, Travel and Other.
After conducting the same query across all three Search sites, we picked a winner based on: 1) relevancy of the organic search results; and 2) robustness of the search experience, which included factors such as image and video inclusion, Search Assist, and Site Breakout.
Here are some of the charts from the study:
It’s interesting to note that Bing actually beat Google in 2 categories: Health & Travel, while Yahoo really struggled.
Our readers however seem to have a different view on which search engine is better. Our latest poll asked whether Bing is a better search engine than Google. So far 50% of you think Bing is better, 39% believe Google is better and 11% are unsure. Want to add your thoughts? Take our poll here.
So is all the hype surrounding Bing justified? I think Google should be careful. Bing is well on the way to becoming a big competitor especially with all the bells and whistles they are fast adding to the search experience.
Courtney is an online marketing specialist at ineedhits - a leading search engine marketing firm with over 11 years experience. Courtney has been living and breathing online marketing for over 2 years. She specializes in web and permission email marketing and providing news and opinion to online marketing communities. Guaranteed Top 10 Listing! Get more targeted visitors to your site! No click fees! Find Out More Here | NEW: Guaranteed Targeted Traffic in 30 Days Get thousands of guaranteed website visitors to your site in 30 days! Get Started Here |
Even though we are not up there in Bing I have found Bing to actually read updates far quicker than Google. I have also discovered that it lists the information in a readable order with the added flash card which is a great help in determining if the link is worth while.
By xen swimwear - July 9, 2009
Google does a better job as far as I am concerned - and why did Microsoft settle on such a childish name ?? Hard to take it seriously.
By John Phillips - July 14, 2009
I have found MSN search and now bing search absolutely hopeless in regard to my own websites - in Google we are in the top 5, in Bing we are nowhere. As with the old msn search it brings up lots of sub-domains of a website and this tends to displace other, more relevant search results.
I would like to think that Bing will develop a more balanced search result and not just one based on the domain name (well that is what I find).
By Richard - July 14, 2009
A more convincing test would have been a blind test of results so that the users didn’t actually know which search engine they were using, which they couldn’t have been doing if they were evaluating “robustness of the search experience, which included factors such as image and video inclusion, Search Assist, and Site Breakout.”
A better test is found here: http://blindsearch.fejus.com (which, in case the URL gets trashed, is BlindSearch DOT Fejus DOT com).
Personally, I find Google’s results lately to be crap. If you searching for a ‘Toronto home’, for example, you get the City of Toronto HOME page, the Toronto Zoo HOME page, The Toronto FC (soccer club) HOME page, the University of Toronto HOME page — all on the first page of results. Almost like Google was still trying to figure out this ’search engine thingy’.
Not that Google can’t get back to the good quality results we used to see, but it leads me to believe that the CitiGroup test may have been tainted somehow. Since when is CityGroup in the search engine testing business, anyhow.
By Bruce Lamb - July 14, 2009
It looks to me like Google won all over. The visual data and the explanation are not very clear. My two cents.
By Deborah - July 15, 2009
I just did a search on all 3 SE for one of my main products (western lamp finials) and both Google and Yahoo had my site listed on the first page (not first place - but that’s ok). However, Bing didn’t even have me listed in the first 8 pages. There were many results, but after the first page, none of the results had the full search term highlighted - so it was giving results based on individual words and not the complete search term. Then I tried the search on Bing with my search terms in quotes - I was number 3. However, what customer shops by putting what they are looking for in quotes? If they are looking for western lamp finials, they should get the results for western lamp finails first, not western lamp. Bing is Not helpful in bringing in the sales based on what I actually sell! Hope they get with the program soon.
By Rita - August 7, 2009
Yahoo used to be the tops, we could often be found in the results where now we are absent. Google gives us a better shake though its hard for a small business to compete against the giants. MSN/Live/Bing results are useless for small to mid sized businesses.
By Nick J. West - August 7, 2009
I’ve not always been a Google fan, but Bing is hands down the loser in my book. The http://www.marriagerepaircenter.com website is page one of Google when I typed in stop divorce. It’s page 5 of Yahoo! When I referred the site to a friend - she searched on Bing and it wasn’t there. (actually I found it on page 16, but nobody searches to page 16) She found Sandra Bullocks dead mothers advice on marriage. (she told her “Don’t”). She also found some hate sites ranked before this quality one.
I’ve tried it several times, but have found that it’s boast of relevant site search - just isn’t true. I’d rather Yahoo!
By Renee - August 7, 2009
Google is much better than any other search engine.
By Hubert Sepidnam - August 7, 2009
The category that interests me is ‘other’. The main categories are of no or marginal interest. So with only a small amount of data for the category other and this category not being split up in more specific categories, the jury is still out.
If find it interesting that Altavista has not be included in the study. This remains my favorite search engine, it is only when Altavista does not show what I’m looking for that I use Google.By Filiep Samyn - August 7, 2009
l think google is exellent,no beating it l firmly believe.
By phil frencham - August 7, 2009
Bing is still consider a “NEW” search engine; Compare to google. Give it times.
By Abu - August 8, 2009
bing is nowhere nearby…. google is best
By rahul - August 11, 2009
It depends on the angle you are coming from in this debate.
I agree with an earlier comment that Bing/Yahoo seem to index sites much quicker. I have certainly found this to be true. But for ‘business/sales’ results Google wins hands down.I also have to say that ‘normally’ I do find Google results to be more relevant to my search topic than other search engines.
Not sure that I agree that Bing is a childish name though ( eralier comment ), Google and Yahoo, as words, probably don’t mean that much to people !
By kevin dockerty - August 12, 2009
google is number one….
By bang ale - August 14, 2009
Bing is hopeless for my site
By Testman - August 30, 2009
Bing is currently dropping sites and pages like theres no tomorrow (just like MSN always has done)i’ve noticed this with several sites.. they do come back though in the majority of cases.
Bing is a joke.. the all new search engine, yet behaves exactly the same as MSN and returns the same results.
Cheers,
Jessica
jessica@ forexsoftware-free.infoBy Jessica - September 21, 2009
i think google is better than bing. i prefer google
Owner
http://www.bnbnewdelhi.comBy raj - December 5, 2009
[...] Google v. Bing – Study finds Google returns more relevant results (ineedhits blog) [...]
By Google Real-time Search – Better than Bing? «Design, Coding, SEO and Social Media Marketing, WordPress & Facebook - December 8, 2009
Google is better than Bing in all situations
and I highly prefer to Google for searching any product which I’m looking for.
Owner
http://www.bnb4delhi.comBy Abhishek Gupta - January 6, 2010
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