Google just bought Motorolla. I know it's completely unrelated but wow!
Wow x2!
Anyways, the study is a bit surprising. I wouldn't think they were so far apart. And I do have my doubts. But it does go to show Google is a victim of its own success and that it is thus a lot more permeable to SEO. That's probably what explains these numbers. How many of us ever wanted to go to search for the site of the maker of a software of piece of hardware, only to have to slosh through pages and pages of vendors? And that's just one of many examples.
I've been using Bing almost exclusively for something like... maybe 5 or 6 months. Can't really tell. It started as a dare, really. I was (and am now more than ever) pretty confident that one of the problems in adopting alternative solutions is a certain uncomfortable feeling when leaving familiar grounds. A certain FUD and hearsay also helps to promote Google as the one and only credible web search engine. It couldn't be more wrong. What I realized (and many others before me) is that I could definitely use Bing. Works great, it's fast and produces just as good results. Because I use it now, let's just say I'm no longer easy prey to the "Bing search results sucks!" false claims many like to throw out by just repeating what they heard.
What bothers me about the whole thing though is that since Google in 1999, we no longer have experienced any more real advancements in web searching. It remained basically the same for over a decade. And there are no signs it will change.
Our web search results are still pretty much given to us in a vertical shopping list style. The web is today so vast and so intricate, Google itself cannot gives us every result it has found; no matter what it says at the top, it is limited to display only 1,000 results.
What do we need? We would need another Google. This one just doesn't cut it anymore. It's too big and it's gone corporate. Best of wishes to them, but they are now just endlessly exploring the formula they created, not risking in creating new innovative ones. It's their prerogative of course. But I don't really rely on this companion for true innovation anymore. Instead a new innovative startup is needed. I dunno, someone that can take web searching to the next level.
We desperately need, for instance, categorized search results, instead of vertical lists. Something like the defunct
Cuil attempted no so long ago. There's a few other interesting projects that at least show a determination to change the face of web searching into something more usable. One such project is
Blekko. But we are experiencing a web nothing like it was back in 1998. It's a incredibly much harder for single -- mostly self-funded -- efforts to gain traction against established giants. It's also missing from them that X-factor... that technological advancement that goes to the hearts of people (like Google did against portal web searching) and that can draw crowds.
