Microsoft’s new “decision engine,” Bing, is the latest to enter the search engine field. With the use of search engines playing such a large role in accomplishing a number of academic tasks, I think it’s important to discuss. Bing has a great deal of advertising behind it, and MSN users will notice that links, which used to take you directly to articles, now take you to pages of Bing results. In general, everyone seems to agree that there is a difference between the way Google and Bing search for Web sites. Bing is a good choice for planning travel, searching for cheap airline tickets and finding local businesses. However, many are puzzled about some features that don’t work or function as you would expect. To judge Bing for yourself, check out these links about Bing and comparing Bing to other sources.

• This site does a Bing and Google search side by side, with one search box - www.bing-vs-google.com
• On this site, users can enter search terms, and it returns results from Google, Bing and Yahoo. It also lets you vote on which results seem most relevant. You find out which results are from which search engine after you have voted, so you may be surprised - blindsearch.fejus.com
• This site lists all the fun stuff you can do with Bing. However, at least 80 percent of them you can also do with Google, so they aren’t all unique to Bing. Rather, these may be seen as general search engine tricks! - www.onlinecolleges.net
• The May 2009 article from Tech World offers an objective review of Bing features - Review of Bing
• And for those who just can’t let go of their Google, here is a link to a Teacher Tube video about its many fun/useful features - teachertube.com