Comparing Google and Bing Search Engines - College of Charleston Libraries

The below is taken directly from: Bates Information Services,  www.BatesInfo.com/tips .  Author is Mary Ellen Bates, of Bates Information Services, Inc. Reprinted with permission.

Hitwise, a firm that studies web market share and consumer activity, reported that the “success rate” of searches was significantly higher for Bing (80%) than Google (68%).

Google has made its search results page attractive to info pros and researchers; the left margin is full of ways to filter or spin your search. Try it on blogs! Search discussion groups! Limit to the last six months! Narrow it to your local area! It’s hard to resist the impression that you are conducting a comprehensive search as you work your way through all of Google’s search options.

Bing has some search features worth considering, though. In addition to the usual specialized searches — news, images, video, map and shopping — it has an interesting Visual Search <http://www.bing.com/browse?FORM=L8SP19>  feature. Right now, there are 90 “galleries”, collections of information on topics ranging from world leaders to US stocks and the top Twitterers. Within each gallery is a browsable collection of images representing each item in the collection; in the World Leaders gallery, for example, there are close to 350 photos of heads of state, each linked to a profile compiled from the CIA World Factbook. You can further filter the gallery by region, title or type of leader, or skim the images to identify a particular person. These galleries may turn into valuable tools for quick answers, particularly if info pros could create their own galleries.