Its beta version has been online since June 3 on www.bing.com and the media is playing up the move as Microsoft’s attempt to take away some of search rival Google’s dominance of the sector. On the local market, Bing is set to start cooperating with Seznam.cz, according to Microsoft sources.
At the end of May Microsoft began releasing Bing, what the company refers to as a “decision engine” that goes beyond mere searching. Bing is predicated on helping people use the information they find online, and even if unstated, implies that Google is no longer enough to navigate the bewildering range of information available online.
“Bing is primarily something like a decision-making machine. It sorts information not only to provide users with logically sorted information, but also to help them make fast and instant decisions. In the first phase, we are targeting the solution of complex decisions in the areas of traveling, shopping and health,” said Tomáš Koška, Microsoft’s manager of online services for Central and Eastern Europe. “Searching itself is still no more than publishing a list of web pages, which don’t always come with some added value. Bing brings more relevancy by highlighting the best possible results. Part of the result is also [in obtaining] difficult to find information, like the telephone number of the customer service line or a suggestion of the traffic connection,” Koška added. Bing is also a very organized too, he said. “The content of the web is very dynamic today and users are often looking not only for a text but also for audio, video, pictures or news. Bing shows a result containing all these parts in one. From the new features I could speak about the search panel located on the left side of the screen, which offers everything that users need—search history, quick links, categories, etc.,” Koška added.
Of course technical details of the search engine have not been made available to the public and are being kept secret. Microsoft has also not disclosed any details regarding the investment into its new project. “I can only reveal that Bing contains very intelligent tools to support vertical decision making—about local information, traveling, air tickets, health, new car buying etc.,” Koška said. Bing has a fully functional Czech version.
Another factor behind Microsoft’s new product is the reported tendency of consumers to do price shopping over a number of different websites. At the beginning of June, Microsoft released Bing Travel to simplify the often long and tedious process where people spend weeks and even months comparing the prices of air tickets and hotels over a dizzying array of sites. With functions such as Bing’s price predictor and rate indicator, travelers will have their hotel search streamlined as well, he said.
“War” of the search engines
Google is the current leader of the Internet search world these days, both with its search technology and its search portal itself, which is accompanied by a number of other services such as e-mail, online document processing, blogs, groups, notebook and a news portal, among many other features. Google’s dominance has reached such heights that the perception has arisen that there is a need for a David to face off against this corporate Goliath. The media has been quick to latch onto the story of any potential competition coming onto the market although the company claims not to be threatened by the newcomer.
“It is natural that users are trying different search engines that are available on market. We are expecting them to try this new one, too, and that is a good thing. More possibilities to choose from means there is a need for improvement and development of the search engines,”said Janka Zichová, communication and corporate affairs manager at Google Czech Republic. “According to the latest data from Navrcholu.cz [from May 2009], Google is being used by about 32.7 percent of Czechs. This number is much higher than two and a half years ago when Google started on the Czech market,” she added.
Before Google, many people used search engine Yahoo. Many also remember the golden age of AltaVista, run by Overture Services, which introduced Babel Fish translation long before Google first provided its own well-known translation service. Babel Fish is currently owned by Yahoo.
Czech search portals divided
Google search technology is also a dominant presence on Czech search portals Centrum.cz and Atlas.cz, both owned by Centrum Holdings. “It is important to offer users a local gateway into the Internet services—that is called a portal. The portals Atlas.cz and Centrum.cz are among the most visited Czech portals. For search technology Google represents quality—the best on the market and that is why Centrum and Atlas are using it—they want to offer the best available local search,” said Jiří Hájek, corporate communications director at Centrum Holdings. Other users of Google search technology include publisher Mafra’s news portal iDnes.cz, social networking site Libimseti.cz and the active portal of Telefónica O2 Czech Republic.
On the other hand search portal Seznam.cz opted for an alternative and negotiations between the company and Microsoft are currently underway for the portal to use Bing’s search technology. Rita Gabrielová, spokeswoman for Seznam.cz, declined to comment on the negotiations because there are no details to specify at this time, but Microsoft’s Koška was more forthcoming. “Bing will be helping millions of Czech Internet users with information searching, and will offer them a new user environment connected to the access to advanced functions and actual information on the Internet. Bing services on Seznam will start in August this year,” he told CBW. Bing therefore could soon have a local test environment that will be a factor in the ongoing search engine competition.
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