Should You Bing In The New Year?

Surprise!!! Bob bashes a Microsoft product.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Here's another surprise... I did say some nice things about Windows 8.

"Once you get past the learning curve... you'll discover something nice ... Windows 8 actually has some compelling new features! ... it boots faster than Windows 7... Internet Explorer 10 and other built-in Windows apps are noticeably faster, too ... longer laptop battery life with Windows 8 ... quite a few security enhancements ... has integrated SkyDrive into Windows apps, so it works just like a local hard drive ..."

See http://askbobrankin.com/switching_to_windows_8_made_easier.html

I have used Dogpile for years. It returns far fewer items than either Google or Bing, and the hits I get are far more relevant. I have even used Dogpile to do research for professional articles for my master's program. It doesn't clutter up the sides with ads that are "relevant" to me. It does have 5-10 ads at the top of the list, but the rest all applies to my search so it's easy to skip the ads.

I too find the smear campaign distasteful, and as the saying goes.. "once bitten..." Microsoft has no room to talk about taking data from the mass and doing any gov. agents bidding. Im sure most all internet co's will do that too, but - "if one lives in a glass house..."
In short I find MS to below par.
Google will remain my search engine.

Just my thoughts....

I would like to suggest Goodsearch.com. Yes, they use the 'regular' search engines to find things but they donate money for each search to the charity of your choice. If I have to support something, at least this one lets me choose where the money goes.

Very true what you infer on how intentional fraudsters/spin doctors/posuers/misinformists/researchers can manipulate results of an inquiry to arrive at spurious and suspect results.

Advertising agencies, big pharma, and indeed highly qualified scientists have been doing this for yonks which brings to mind an old though penitent adage of Benjamin Franklin 'believe nothing of what you hear and only half of what you see (read)'

I had Google as my search engine and Bing literally kidnapped my searches despite my having Google listed as default. Bing was nowhere near as good as Google, giving me pages that were about 2/3 ads with a few topical listings at the bottom of the page. I finally had to get my IT Director stepson to block Bing completely and am fine with Google. Not perfect, but usually I get 3/4 page correct or rational topical answers and a few ads, instead of the reverse -- and usually I find what I want.

The mud slinging turned me off with MS and Bing. If it's a simple search for something generic I use Ixquick but then there are topic specific search engines and databases that fit my needs better.

At one time Bing was a fairly decent search engine for terms that Google didn't care to return. Now, it's a crap shoot with Google, even on safe mode and Bing is suffering from Micro-Weird-itis.

Great informative article as usual Bob! Political issues aside, even though I use Google what I dislike enormously is that if you make a mistake and close a couple of screens and go into history to find them Google will never provide the last Google search result summary while Bing does. So its impossible for you to work of that summary again. Google will only provide a new blank search tab.

Microsoft is merely meeting kind with kind with its anti-Google advertising. As distasteful as Microsoft's advertising may be, I find Google as a corporate entity even more distasteful and avoid using Google for many of the same reasons I don't shop Walmart.

BING is crap it takes over my computer like a virus
every thing did BING kept butting in.i have now disabled internet explorer and changed to chrome all because of BING.i tried everything to get rid of bing nothing worked,BAD news from MS

I prefer DuckDuckGo and have been using & teaching about it since your early article about it years ago. I occasionally use Google for technical computer help, i.e. how to replace a certain model computer motherboard. I look at the link & where it is going and rt.clk and open in a new tab to keep from losing the search page. Keeps the band width usage down somewhat.
I just don't like being tracked (nothing to hide) just don't like it.

I favor startpage.com and duckduckgo.com. Startpage funnels through Google, while blocking your data so it isn't fed to Google. I've noticed this pares Google's tendency to pitch its results to what its analyses show you prefer.
I think Lifehacker.com had an article where the author noticed different results when Googling a subject between himself and his friends.
This article: bit.ly/KAejs4 talks about Google mining advert info from your Gmail account, both your and received mail from your correspondents. Spikes one's paranoia, altho I still use Gmail :)

Back in the old days (of course, not as old as that Meineke muffler ad you referred to), Google would allow you to see 100 hits/page page (using the argument &num=100). Then, they made it so that you could only do so; if you were logged into gmail (via using 'Advanced Search'). Then, I think it just disappeared or I gave up attempting to see more than just 10 hits/page.
A Firefox (FF) user can customize the FF search field to utilize more than a single engine of user's desire. The FF search field also provides a preferences link called "Manage Search Engines", where a user can add more than just the few engines already discussed (158 pages of them). The link for "Get More Search Engines" (https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/search/?atype=4) allows user to select a variety of different types of search engines (these are FF 'add-ons') that are subject based and/or from many different countries, etc. FF also provides another add-on that makes the search field auto-size itself (autosizer), so as to minimize that field from taking up too much room on right side of the address bar.
In addition, an FF user can further select to use some of the search engines (such as DuckDuckgo, or WolframAlpha) via https or SSL or 'clean w/no history'. In the case of Google, one FF add-on is for "Google No p**n". Additionally, the Google's "click thru" feature that its primary revenue generator, can be blocked within FF, using such add-ons as NoScript and AdBlock add-ons or using QuickJava add-on for the super paranoid (self included).

Great new article, but statistically doesn't google return more relevant results and less virus pages?

And I've heard the first six results on google search results are sponsored. So if you type in plumber and your area, the ones who pay google are the ones who get noticed? Is this true?

I find the "cutting deals with Facebook and craigslist" to be the biggest reason to stay away from Bing.
I have begun to use Startpage more and more since I am tired of ads for six month old searches still following me around.
I will have to start looking at Dogpile and Duck duck go.
I have been reading your newsletter for years and have found that you can also learn a lot from the comments of others....your comment moderation policy keeps out all of the insults and name calling found in most comment pages.
JD

Years ago I switched from Google to Bing because Google was "second guessing" me. Example: Cluttering the results with hits including the word "report" when my search only included the word "repeat." Originally Bing did not do this but now their results also exhibit this undesired behavior.

A "Did you mean report?" question at the top of the search results would be fine but just assuming that users don't know how to spell gives us search results that are far from optimum.

re: Google spying

http://siliconangle.com/blog/2013/06/08/nsa-spying-denials-prove-that-google-is-truly-evil/

http://breaking-news-worldwidee.blogspot.com/2013/06/google-spying-on-people-with-cia-people.html

EDITOR'S NOTE: First link is interesting reading, but mostly speculation here. One could possibly infer that Google complied with lawful demands from the gov't to provide specific information. But that's far different than Google spying on users and selling their private data, which was your original claim. The second story is just a list of accusations with no sources at all.

I have been using Bing for some months now and love it,I have hundreds of pictures of wonderful things I will never see in the flesh.
I have also I used Google and admit it is very good but I will stick to Bing.

A woman in a small private msg group posted this yesterday:

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/dec/04/google-democracy-truth-internet-search-facebook

and after reading it, I was a bit numb. Fake news is bad enough, but this - this is something out of a sci-fi movie or a Twilight Zone episode!

I came out here looking for information on Google search alternatives. Though with my Android phone, I am already seriously enmeshed in the world of Google. And your most recent article, http://askbobrankin.com/can_you_delete_yourself_from_the_internet.html, only magnifies for me the level of entanglement.

This article on Bing is almost two years old .. what's the current state of affairs on Bing and/or search engines in general??

Oh, and just a note on Google vs Bing with regard to the negative auto filling outlined in the Guardian link above: When one enters "Are Jews ..", "Are Blacks .." or "Are Women .." into Bing's search field, one does NOT get the negative, fake news flood that comes up in Google. Just sayin' ..