Google doesn't lose.

Google is so much more than search though. Gmail, docs, reader, voice (was just invited) all that crap will keep me loyal to google.

I doubt there's much that MS and yahoo can do to keep me from using Google as my search engine. Google does what I want it to do - fast search that gives the result I want in the first couple results without any extra useless fancy stuff. Google maps is also more user friendly to me than yahoo maps.

I doubt we will ever say "Microhoo". They are too big to forget.

Bing! Fries are done!

I dislike Bing, it gives some strange results (and not strange in a good way, strange in a useless way) results. I'm sticking with google.

Besides, google's built into firefox. I would go to a different search site to search why, again?

Microsoft still doesn't seem to get the whole concept of KISS (keep it simple stupid). I like Google because it's website is minimalist, mostly text, etc. Bing is all about glitz. I find the images that they splash all over not only the front page but the results pages to be distracting and just a waste, especially since it wants you to install Silverlight for the "full experience" of their website.

I'll stick with a simple no-frills search engine since all I care about are decent results, not Vegas-style flashiness. Google devotes their efforts to where it counts - the actual search engine. Microsoft, yet again, devotes huge amounts of resources to trying to make things look fancy.

Unfortunately for MS and Y, I'm not really in the market for a new search engine. Google is just fine for me, it's my homepage. I'm kind of a 'if it an't broke don't fix it' person. The only way I usually stray from a trusted brand/product is if quality drops off or if a competitor can offer me a better price. Since search is free, I don't see myself switching.

Microsoft will make Yahoo its bitch, and it still won't beat Google. When "Google it" has become such an integral part of the language that even the 80-year-old dude in the Home Depot toilet department is saying it to me, it's NOT going anywhere.

@bonzombiekitty: Google Maps got me lost in Boston. There is no exit 23 near the Ted Williams Tunnel.

@Hatin'SharkWeek_GitEmSteveDave: Yahoosoft? Yahcrosoft? Sounds kind of Swedish.

I use Google so much that I don't think I'd be able to do much without it. The only personal email accounts I have are through Google, I watch videos on YouTube on a weekly basis, I read the news through Google News (and then I peruse other sites), and I use Google the search engine for other things besides searches. I use it as a dictionary, as a calculator, and as a way of looking up movie showtimes.

This is always fun -

[www.blackdog.ie]

Side by side results.

I personally have a conundrum. While I use google maps almost everyday as part of my job, sometimes Bing gives me a location that google doesn't have. I don't really like the idea of any of the companies being so dominant, but really, how good could a small competitor be?

Google's unwritten motto is don't be evil, but they break it all the time, and Microsoft, they have no such motto. Then again, Apple's motto appears to be, be evil as f#@k. Do they have a search engine? They could call it Cthuoogle.

@Nicole: So is yahoo - actually there's like 6 search tools built into firefox, from Google to Amazon.com

@pecan 3.14159265: Yoohoo.

I have already made the switch. Bing is the shiznitobam

@IphtashuFitz: AMEN! If only most of the Web could get their brain around this idea. I've found that most bank websites are absurdly image-heavy, for instance.

@ras_d: Do you also own a Zune?

I am inspired by the photograph:
This battle is like Andre the Giant (Google) vs the two 5'2", 95 pound no name wrestlers (Microsoft & Yahoo). "Microhoo" might be able to kick Google in the shin a couple of times, but in the end Google will just keep doing what it is doing, and end up drop kicking Microhoo to the ground. That is unless of course Jimmy "Superfly" Snuka, and Hulk Hogan (Government regulators) come into the ring with metal folding chairs and 2 x 4s and start attacking Andre the Giant err Google.

@Nicole: Actually, several search tools are built into Firefox. Click on the Google logo at the left end of the search box, to get a list of the ones installed already. To manage the ones you have, click on "Manage Search Engines" at the bottom of this list, then click on the "Get more search engines" link.

As for why you should use different search engines ... it' just a good idea to try out different ones, now and again. Most are in near-constant development cycles; new features and search/index algorithms are implemented all the time. You never know what will come up, which might be useful to you.

Try different types of searches, too. You may find that some types of searches are better on some search engines than on others.

@Stephmo: I ran several tests with search terms that I was familiar with over a broad range of topics. Both sites delivered similar results, but Google tended to come out with more relevant results (or at least put them first on the list).

@IphtashuFitz: Agreed. I set up an iGoogle account on all of my computers and made it my homepage. It is still a very lightweight page as I only have my Google Calendar, G-mail, and a news feed. It allows me instant access to almost everything that I need on a very simple and lightweight page.

@bonzombiekitty: Exactly. Google is a straight and simple search engine. Yes it has extras, but they don't get in the way of the main job. Both Yahoo and MSN are full of garbage, ads, news, etc that clutters the page. You have to go looking for the search field on those sites. With Google, the search field IS the site.

@Stephmo: oooh! that is interesting! i ran a search for "abbracadabbra". google led me to some myspace page (prolly b/c i spelled it wrong) whereas bing led me to the results i would have gotten if i wasn't a moron.

i'm gonna setup a ff shortcut to do my searches in that site. thanks for the link!

So I see Randy Orton and Cody Rhodes, two white men, with Orton standing over Kofi Kingston, a black man.

Is the Consumerist racist?! More at 11.

But I just think it's funny that MS and Yahoo have an inferiority complex to Google when it comes to their search engines. Isn't MS still a bigger overall company than Google? Why should they really care? Yahoo, I understand. Maybe they reached out to MS first?

@AreYouConfusedYet?HowAboutNow?: That could have happened with any of the map services. There's even a disclaimer.

This reminds me of the dog that chased cars for years and finally caught one. Now what ?

The combined entity had BETTER have a game changing business plan to do battle with Google.Not to say that it can never happen ,but as a previous poster pointed out , Google has become a verb and that usually means highly loyal customers.

@Nicole: You can easily add a Bing engine to Firefox as well.
Go to [mycroft.mozdev.org]
Search for Bing.
On that page, you can add Firefox search engines for thousands of sites.
I have Bing, IMDB, Craigslist (narrowed down to NYC sale/wanted)and many others on mine.

@IphtashuFitz: "Microsoft, yet again, devotes huge amounts of resources to trying to make things look fancy." ?

I thought that was Apple's Job.

"In a schoolyard bully battle royale, Microsoft and Yahoo are joining forces to target Google, with the aim of relieving the company of its search engine dominance."

Or in another apt analogy, users are left feeling like the Poles and Baltic states circa 1935 caught between the Germans and the Russians. No matter who wins, the meat in the sandwich loses.

@takes_so_little: It's nice to see Microsoft on the wrong side of inertia for a change.

@JustinSane07: It is all about money. I don't remember the exact statistic, but Jason Calicanis who owns Mahalo.com (a very small search engine) said that 1% of the search business was worth several millions of dollars. So if MicroHoo can increase their collective share of search by a few percentage points, even if they never beat Google, it is additional revenue for them.

@pb5000: And that handy little tasks list and Old Snakey in Gmail.. Old Snakey! I'm never leaving!

I do not like Yahoo with Bing
I do not like that ugly thing

I will not use it on the web
I will not use it surfing in bed

I will not use it in a house
I will not use it with a mouse

I will not use it here or there
I will not use it anywhere

I do not like Yahoo with Bing
I do not like that ugly thing

@IphtashuFitz:
It really dosen't sound like you've even compared the two beyond a preliminary visit to their front-pages.

"images that they splash all over" - Both have one image on the results page; the logo image.

Other than that both have pretty much identical options, except that Google hides (collapses) some (so you have to go through more steps to display them, which by definition is not simple.)

-Google provides two search buttons compared to Bing's one. (Google's second button is additionally cryptic as "I'm feeling lucky" is not clear as to it's function.")
-BOTH provide site-specific sub-page links & search within results (ie, search both for Belkin: "Support", "Wireless", "iPod" etc)...with identical interfaces.
-BOTH have sponsored ads on the left and within results.
-BOTH have links and a search-bar at the top (Bing's search-bar is (less cluttered with other search links though=more simple).
-BOTH have right-side content (Google just hides it under the "Web + Show Options" link which is technically further from KISS than Bing as if you want those options you have to do more to get at them).

I'll grant you that Goog USED to KISS,
but they've cluttered themselves up and have become bloated over the past decade.

Finally, having some experience with web-design I'd have to come to MS's defence in that the time necessary to create a search decision-engine for results is MUCH MORE than the time needed to format a little CSS with images (your "flashiness").

@Rachacha: i think this is the one & only time anyone will ever refer to microsoft as a featherweight.

@JLHilton:
That's what they said about "Let your fingers do the walking" with the Yellow Pages.
And honestly, how often does anyone use a phone book today?

IF "bing"is their secret weapon,then Google does not have a problem. both companies should go back to the drawing boards. The few times that I have used Bing it was useless to the point of frustration.

@bonzombiekitty: One of the things that still blows me away about google is you go to their page, you have the name google at the top, one search bar, and a few unobtrusive links at the bottom.

Head over to MSN or Yahoo and you get to be treated to a seizure inducing 30 minute load of spam ads, garbage lowest common denominator articles and so much junk you cant even SEE the search bar. Why do these companies continue to believe that bombarding their customers with volumes of garbage they didn't ask for is a good thing?

Our internet is wonked up and won't let most google pages load (i can get Gmail to work only through a backdoor), so I've been trying out other search engines in the meantime trying to find one as useful as Google.

So far I have not found any.

I've been using Bing, partially because it's supposed to be the "google killer" and partially because I'm biased towards something that has my own name in it, and it just doesn't work that well. I think the problem is Bing advertises that it gets rid of all the useless search results, but I USE those "useless" search results and often find what I'm looking for because of the weird returns that Bing doesn't seem to think is relevant to my query.

Microsoft sucks major donkey balls and shame on Yahoo for selling out to the evil corporate monopoly only known for its greed and lack of internet security. I WILL NOT be switching from my Mozilla / Google interface. Thank you.

@Coop: I've seen at least two different images on the Bing front page. I forget what the first one was. The one they have now has a number of hotspots on it, and when you mouse over one of them it explicitly states I should install Silverlight to "view past photos". A search engine certainly doesn't need Silverlight to operate, and doesn't need to display multiple photos on the front page when all I want is a text search. It seems to me like MS is trying to use Bing as an excuse to try to push Silverlight on users who otherwise might not use it.

Congratulations on your web design experience. I worked for 8 years in the early 90's for a search engine company, both as a software engineer and later as a sysadmin. We started out licensing our technology to other search engines, mainly search methodologies that other search engines hadn't even considered at the time. I was one of the ones that developed the original algorithms behind the related search features that you now see on virtually every search engine. At the time we were the only company doing that sort of thing, and licensing that data to a number of search customers. Our company was eventually acquired by one of the other search giants shortly before 2000 and our technologies incorporated into their search products. So I know a heck of a lot more about the internals of how search engines operate than over 90% of internet users.

I've compared Bings results to those of Google and other search engines and I certainly don't see anything to set them apart. In fact I've seen some downright odd results from Bing at times. As far as I'm concerned the only real thing that differentiates them from Google is the glitz, which certainly isn't much of an advantage. I certainly hope that's not all that they have going for them...

I personally try to disconnected myself from a specific search engine, and prefer to use Firefox's keyword feature.
If you know you want a specific result, just target it to where you're expecting a result for in the first place. It's much faster to get the result from the specific target source than to use the search engine middle-man (and hope the result I want is somewhere near the top in all the adds, options and other results, which is the case for BOTH Goog & Bing).
You also bypass all the ads and clutter that come with all search engines.

My Keywords (a small subset of my organized keyword universe):
wp - Wikipedia
cl - CraigsList
trip - Bing Travel
imdb - imdb search
con - Consumerist search
hulu - hulu search
yt - YouTube search
shows - Youtube/shows search
maps - Google Maps
images - Bing images
cnn - cnn site search
fb - facebook friend search
myspace - MySpace search
ups - ups tracking number
dhl - DHL tracking number
usps - usps tracking number
amazon - amazon search
lookup/define - Merriam-Webster site definition
syn - synonym.com synonym search
ant - synonym.com antonym search
urban - UrbanDictionary search
howto - HowTo.com 'how to' search
quote - WikiQuote quote search
ebay - ebay search
torrent - bittorrent search
make - Make Search
sourceforge - SourceForge search
food - FoodNetwork search
diagnose - WrongDiagnosis symptom search
anagram - Anagram solver
whois - Internic whois lookup
reverse - reverse phone lookup
giz - Gizmodo search
boing - boing boing search
icanhas - lolcat search

@Paladin_11:
Web/Bed rhyming fail.

Neither Microsoft nor Yahoo! have reached Zen. They'll lose.

@SnowingCookies: Whoa, have you missed the boat. Apple's whole design and UI approach is simplicity, simplicity, simplicity. The complexity is under the hood where the rocket scientists dwell. Google, as IphtashuFitz notes, shares the same philosophy.
Easy is hard.
Some people get it, and some (poor, poor sods) don't.

@Coop: If you don't know what I'm Feeling Lucky is for, and if you don't use Boolean modifiers, you have no business being on the Internet.

@Trai_Dep: i believe your reply was instead meant for "IphtashuFitz", the person who I was quoting.