Even though I love Google, it somehow excites me when someone comes up with an all new product in search and says this is going to be the next big thing. Today, Microsoft unveiled its soon-to-launch search engine Bing which they say is more of a decision engine. It will become available over the next few days, and be fully launched by June 3rd. The internal codename for Bing is Kumo.

Personally, I am pretty bored with Google even though it’s a great search engine; I would love for someone to come out with a great looking search engine, which searches well too. Bing has at least made me happy with the amazing design and different background pictures feature and from what I saw and read Bing seems much more interactive than Google or any other search engine for that matter.

The last time something like this happened was when Ex-Google Employees and more came out with Cuil, A search engine which claimed to be three times as big as Google with over 120 billion pages indexed in its database. But with the overload on their server within a few hours after they went live and an average search Cuil didn’t turn out as expected.

This time it is Microsoft, It’s a biggie with an all new search engine with a lot of features. Even though Cuil has led me to not expect too much, I still can’t wait for Bing to go live, I’m still extremely psyched about it.

Following are the features of Bing: (Source: Microsoft)

• Home Page: Because you may not always know about the range of content a search engine can find for you, the Bing home page includes a beautiful new image daily, information hotspots embedded in that image, and clear links for starting your searches for video, news, shopping, travel, images or maps.
• Autosuggest: Bing examines what you are typing in the search box and will automatically suggest similar terms or common refinements related to the term you are typing. For example, when searching for “California,” you will see common related searches, including “California DMV,” “California lottery” and “California ski report.”
• Best Match: The Bing Best Match feature is designed to make finding relevant information easier by cutting down the number of clicks and getting you to your final destination faster. Best Match results include customer service numbers for retail sites, the ability to track a package right from the search page, deep links to common pages within the site and much more.
• Document Preview: Nearly one-quarter of searches result in rapid click back, when you realize that the search result was not what you were looking for. Document Preview lets you hover over a search result to see a preview of the site’s content, which helps you determine whether the site is likely to contain the information you’re looking for — before you click.
• Instant Answers: Bing provides Instant Answers that immediately return highly relevant direct answers in response to a specific search. For example, entering a flight number will return the most recent flight information and display it prominently in the results, saving the hassle of going to a separate page. Other Instant Answers on Bing include stock prices, local weather, sports scores and more.

• Explore Pane: Located on the left side of the screen, the Explore Pane lets you easily filter search results. Features in the Explore Pane include categorized search results called Quick Tabs, links to related searches and past searches in Session History. The Explore Pane also can be used in the local, travel and shopping experience for powerful refinement of your search results.
• Quick Tabs: Half of all searches are eventually refined to find more specific results. Quick Tabs anticipate your intent when searching and offers easy access to some of the most common refinements for a given search. For example, when searching for a favorite musician, Quick Tabs let you filter results by albums, biography, videos and images. These tabs change dynamically based on the search term. Searches for a certain city name yield Quick Tabs for tours, travel and images; searches for a car model generate categories on reviews, accessories and videos.
• Related Searches: When searching for a specific result, our research has shown that people also like to expand their search to explore related topics. After making an initial search, Related Searches provides a list of related search terms, helping you easily expand a search to find more great results.
• Session History: Nearly half of all searches are a repeat of a previous search. Session History provides easy access to searches from your current search session so that you don’t need to initiate a new query to get back to an earlier result.
• Video Search: Bing video search helps make finding, previewing and watching videos easier. Bing indexes content from video sites across the Web and our own index of full-length television shows. It also includes filtering tools to narrow a search to make it easier for you to find the exact video you’re looking for.
• Image Search: Bing image search includes infinite scroll, which lets you easily browse image results without clicking to a new page. Bing also has powerful filtering tools for images to make it easier to find just the right image.

• News Search: Bing news search lets you search the latest news from across the Web and receive news alerts.
• Bing Maps: Bing Maps lets you easily find, discover, plan and share location information, including maps and directions and engaging bird’s-eye, 3-D and aerial imagery.
• Shopping: Bing combines many of the shopping features available across the Web into one intuitive and easy-to-use experience. In addition to providing many product search refinement tools, Bing also scans the Web for user and expert reviews, organizes them by product attribute, and then ranks the sentiment in the reviews as either positive or negative. This enables you to filter quickly through lots of information to inform a purchase decision.
• Travel: Bing Travel analyzes billions of pieces of airfare and hotel data to offer you flight Price Predictors and hotel Rate Indicators. Based on science, not marketing, Bing Travel enables you to make smart, well-informed decisions when planning a trip, every time.
• Local: Today’s search engines don’t always help people make informed decisions about the quality of a restaurant or the best way to contact a local mechanic. Bing presents relevant content including user reviews aggregated from local content sites, hours of operation for local businesses, one-click directions, maps and traffic reports.
• Health: Bing helps people find health information online. While there is no substitute for the expertise of a trained physician, Bing provides you with easy access to medical information from nine trusted resources to help you make more informed decisions about personal care.

Availability

Bing will be available worldwide. However, specific feature availability will differ according to markets.

Thanks for reading.