Delusional Microsoft Is Betting Big Money It Can Out-Search Google
If Microsoft has its way bending your brain with a megabucks ad budget for its forthcoming Bing search engine, someday you'll replace the verb "googled" with "binged." Which could give new meaning to the phrase "binged and purged," but whatever.
Undeterred by previous failures, Microsoft is once again tilting the seemingly all-powerful Google windmill. AdAge reports Microsoft is pushing a towering stack of chips into the betting circle, if nothing else indicating the company believes in its product, which is said to be able to streamline web searches into several concurrent categories that streamline your desired functions and facilitate arrival at applicable destinations. Translation: It finds you your porn quicker.
The software giant is set to launch an $80 million to $100 million campaign for Bing, the search engine it hopes will help it grab a bigger slice of the online ad market. That's a big campaign — big compared with consumer-product launches ($50 million is considered a sizable budget for a national rollout) and very big when you consider that Google spent about $25 million on all its advertising last year, according to TNS Media Intelligence, with about $11.6 million of that focused on recruiting. Microsoft, by comparison, spent $361 million. Certainly Google has never faced an ad assault of anything like this magnitude.
An early version of Bing, codenamed Kumo, was leaked back in March, so you can read up on it at that link. Or just, you know, Google it.
Microsoft Aims Big Guns at Google, Asks Consumers to Rethink Search [AdvertisingAge, via Wired]
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Comments:
Given it is from Microsoft it will no doubt be an epic fail.
Oh, Chandler Bing, how you have become relevant once again.
Smart categorization of results would be welcome; I'm surprised Google still hasn't done more on that front.
Thank god...I mean the search function in XP and vista are so fast I was wondering when they were going to implement it to the web........I hope it comes with an animation of a dog as well because you need to look at something when you sit there and wait 10 minutes for your results to pop up.......that's assuming OS doesn't crash first.
I nearly fell out of my chair when I rolled over the link under the word "failures." Good stuff.
Could this BE a dumber name?
Why is it delusional to think that a company as successful as Microsoft can't beat Google? They very much have a shot at it.
Any why blame them for trying? Isn't competition a good thing?
@RodAox: And the dog will give "helpful" suggestions, such as "opening a browser window" and "an introduction to tabs"...
Why does Microsoft feel the need to try to be the bestest and the mostest in everything thats out there? Why can't they just stick to making software?
I don't see Starbucks trying to take on Crispy Cream and Dunkin Donuts in the donut making category.
You know Microsoft, perhaps if you just concentrated all your efforts and resources on your operating system--instead of sticking your thumb in hundreds upon hundreds of horrible applications--you wouldn't be losing market share at such an alarming rate.
@pecan 3.14159265: Microsoft seems to be unable to grasp that some people avoid things that have "Microsoft" attached to them for various reasons.
It will take more than deep pockets to beat Google. Google has a positive brand reputation that Microsoft can't match and until they can (which I suspect will be never) they won't have a shot a dethroning the kings.
@zarex42: They certainly have the money to put up a good fight. The first Xbox was a huge money sink, but it got them market share and now they have Sony on life support. The first Zune was just a failure all-around, but if Microsoft continues to listen to feedback as thye did with Windows 7, they certainly have a chance to grab some of that iPod market share.
Yeah, and why does Google feel the need to intrude on Outlook's turf with email, or Excel's with Google spreadsheet?
The most baffling thing here is the selection of the name "Bing" for the product.
Kumo was a distinctive code name. It sounded serious, exotic, and very non-Microsoft.
"Bing" is lightweight, and smacks of a desperate attempt to find a product name that could be turned into a verb a la Google. Microsoft's legendary branding-by-focus-group strikes again.
What's the most successful brand Microsoft has developed in the last decade? Xbox. What was the original code name of that project? Xbox. The branding folks couldn't come up with anything better than the original team had.
Microsoft: Trust your developers. Especially the ones without MBAs. Kumo was a great product name. Bing is terrible.
So are you saying everybody should just give up the search war and let Google control everything? I know going up against Google in the search realm seems foolhardy but there was a time when Yahoo! was the king of search. Maybe Microsoft won't win the war but I think they should be applauded for not giving up.
@CreativeLinks: Really? And google is focused on just one thing? Please! All these companies are the same. Google has been gobbling up smaller companies at a Microsoft-like rate. Orkut, Picasa, Google Earth, Sketchup are a few of the products/technologies that Google acquired by buying the original companies. That's straight out of the Microsoft playbook.
@Blueskylaw: You mean, stick to the "os's & applications" arena? as far as I know, a search engine is software.
@dragonfire81: I think even way more people gravitate towards anything with Microsoft attached to it. And I bet if google it, you'll find google-haters out there.
Well, it'll help you find those people you lost touch with after high school.
NED! RYERSON!
+1 to Phil for that great picture.
I think its great. Even if Microsoft tries really hard and ultimately fails, Google will do something to increase its performance and functionality to compete with Microsoft, even if it is just for a very short time frame. In the end, the market gets a better product.
@zarex42: Because they are going up against a well established company with a product that isn't going to be very much different. Look at what happened when they tried to get into the tax software business ten years ago. Their advantage is that they don't have to charge users for it and they can set it as the default search engine in IE.
@tundey:
I don't believe I ever said that Google focuses on one thing. However, Google has NEVER stopped focusing on building the best search engine in the world. They continue to expand their search engine constantly--adding image search, ad words, news search, video search, mapping, etc.
They may dabble in other web applications that increase traffic, but they never lose sight of thier flagship search engine. they just keep improving it.
At one point, MS had 98% of the OS market. 98%!
How do you drop that monopoly? Especially when your OS is pre-installed with almost every computer out there and people are already familiar with your system.
You lose focus. You force changes on customers who don't want it. And you create such bloated, crappy, untested code that people don't look forward to your releases, but FEAR them.
Being "binged" is still not as sexy as getting "wolframmed"...
@Ragman: Microsoft is pretty well established as well, and there are tons of improvements possible for search; Google isn't *that* great.
Both companies have their record of successes and failures (Google has *many* failures.) But it doesn't mean that it should be branded as "delusional" from the getgo. Silliness, Consumerist.
Bing? They were so close to a great concept, should have called it Bang. Awesome conversations would ensure.
"Yo, guess what I just banged?" or "Hey, I banged today"
@dotyoureyes: I dunno...not defending Bing in any way here...but Kumo reminds me of Cuil, which was an insta-fail.
@Blueskylaw: Because how else will they leverage their quasi-illegal monopoly in OSs and office application software?
@tundey: Except that you'll note that the quality of most Google acquisitions are light-years better than Microsoft's. Or worse (for MS), once their gremlins get to work on them, Google is able to improve them far more than MS's are able to. (Obviously, they're not perfect: they miss as well, but it's to be expected)
They also are more prone to aim for "blue sky" type apps - ones which may not make immediate commercial sense, but that they're willing to throw out and see if they catch on. That's how true innovation happens.
Microsoft has had as many failed search engines as they have had failed OS'. That's just hilarious.
@dragonfire81: I think it's also that Google is good at doing one very specific thing in a variety of ways. They're good at searches and data, whether it's compilation of data or presenting of data to make work more efficient (google's integrated dictionary, for instance).
Why does Microsoft want to be everything to everybody? Why can't it just focus on making a good, reliable OS?
Bad example. Actually, Starbucks bought Top Pot, a delicious Seattle based Doughnut chain.
@Ragman: Keep in mind that IE still has a 60% market share. By making Bing default with IE8 and Windows 7, Microsoft could get Bing into the hands of millions of new users.
Yeah, IE's market share is down from the 90% all-time-high from the IE5.5/IE6 days. And it's still losing users to Firefox, Chrome, and Safari. But many companies would kill for a 60% market share in any market sector.
Will MS Vista machines mysteriously start removing Google applications and directing people to "Bing" in place of Google after one of their "Security updates incorporationg WGA and BGR (Bing Google Removal)"?
@tundey: Yahoo got bloated where as people didn't want bloat they wanted answers...
Yahoo also had profiles almost like stripped down Myspace/Facebook type things back in the late 1990s but they shut the functionaliy down due to people sharing ***too*** much of their interests and info... Yeah good move and then Yahoo tried again with that POS profile deal named 360 which they are now letting die off with their 'new' profile scheme starting up...
@pecan 3.14159265: I think the reason Microsoft wants to move beyond the OS is that the OS business is dying and becoming increasingly irrelevant. As the Web (or mobile devices) are the platform for virtually all exciting new application software these days, it's becoming more and more unimportant whether you're running a Microsoft OS vs. Mac OSX vs. Linux. Microsoft is trying to move into web stuff, repeatedly, because they believe their company is doomed if they focus only on the OS.
@MFfan310: People could be binging in no time! Ahh, wait...
In a perfect world for Microsoft, everyone would use and love using Microsoft products. As it is, for them to include bing as the default home page or default search engine (presumably something like msbing or bing.com) is merely a small obstacle to any Windows user who wants to use Google. Google toolbar + changing the home page = no more Bing. Or at least, Bing would be relatively out of the way.
It seems like Microsoft wants to force Bing onto people, and that simply will not fly. Users can't be forced into something, not anymore. Remember when AOL touted virus scanner and e-mail spam protection in the 90s? Savvier people knew where to find virus protection for free on the internet, and not spend extra money for AOL to offer it. Same case here.
The biggest question is, will Bing do better than Google? Maybe, but Google is king for a reason: it searches well, it's fast, it's simple. Any other search engine page is ridiculously slow to load on any smartphone. Google remains the easiest search engine to use, and it's integrated in most smartphones. I'd like to see Microsoft try to weasel into that market as well.
The thing about Microsoft is that they won't give up. They'll keep throwing money at it until it's good enough. Not as good or better; just good enough -- by that I mean good enough that most people won't say, "Oh this sucks. I'm going to figure out how to change the default." They'll then make it the default in their good enough browser, which is the default browser in Windows, which is the default OS on computers.
Bill Gates realized a long time ago that you don't have to be better, you just have to be good enough and the default.
Google's got a big challenge on their hands since Microsoft still controls over 90% of personal computer market share.
@I Love New Jersey: Yep. If Windoze is any indication of what happens when Microsoft puts lots of money into something, this will be just... awful.
google advertises?