Badda BING...

No...not that Badda Bing! BING.com is the name of Microsoft's new search engine and apparently it has Google taking notice. BING is touting itself as a "decision engine" rather than just a search engine. It has features that help you make decisions in areas like travel, shopping, health, local traffic and more. 

For instance, if you want to know the status of a flight you have coming up, BING will allow you to search that flight number and will display the information right on the search results page. If you want to know the lowest price of an item you are interested in buying, BING will show in its search results, the lowest price it found for that item, where you can buy it and some reviews about it. It also has a traffic link on it's maps page that will show you if there are reported traffic problems along selected routes in your area.

While it's not revolutionary, I think BINGs approach to searching for, and finding information, is unique. It goes a step further in helping you find what you are looking for or making a decision about something, by offering a deeper level of information rather than simply pointing you to the correct web site(s).

Will BING end up being serious competition for Google (which now claims better than 60% of all Internet search)? I think time will tell on that question, but I do like the unique approach. And, one thing that BING allows you to do much easier than other search  engines, is search within a set of results. For example if I search for "cheap flights to europe", and I want to then search within that set of results for something more specific, all I need to do is clicked the 'Advanced' link and enter words to add to my search. To me that is a great feature that must just get me to switch? Give BING.com a try and let me know what you think?