It’s been just over 3 months since Bing hit the web waves and despite the hoopla of its marketing campaign I’ve only recently tested it out for good measure because I’m a habitual Google user. If you haven’t explored it yet, I offer you my reflections.

Bing has bling appeal. A colorful homepage picture posts new everyday, which when moused over offers pop-up factoids about the subject of the picture. The picture of the day also carries over into a cross fading header on search pages. I like the “ambiance” this creates, color feels good.

Bing organizes. A tidy left column keeps a running list of your recent searches, offers related searches as another list, and in yet another list, breaks out specific categories like “Restaurants” and “Tourism” to help you refine general searches for, say, “NYC.” Bing will also organize search results to group categorically on the page, so a search for NYC offers 3 to 5 general results followed by 3 to 5 more results associated with NYC Maps, followed by NYC Restaurants, followed by NYC Tourism, etc. This is handy and efficient, but such “smart” technology may interfere a bit too much with results. I still found some searches on Google were seemingly more comprehensive, or at the very least brought up results I actually wanted.

Which leads me to my main point, I’m using both search engines now, as well as a variety of browsers. I can’t pick sides. I like certain functions on both, so I’ll be switching between the two.

I love how Bing’s image results scroll endlessly and offer details when you mouse over them. Bing’s map provided driving directions I wanted, whereas Google maps gave directions in a route I didn’t want to go; however, the option to drag and change your route on Google Maps is very useful. I still found searches on Google to have a more satisfying breadth of results, so I will continue to trust it to dig deeply for content.

If you haven’t already, go to Bing.com and click through the tour. I personally think the diversification of my habits will be fruitful.

Please tell us about your experience using Bing!