Has Microsoft just done something better than Google did it?
I think it has. And, like most great ideas, it is pretty obvious…
Microsoft’s ex-decision engine, Bing, is going to start displaying some neatly positioned returns based on preferences identified by the people within your social graph.
Google does something similar. But the difference is Microsoft is including returns based on your entire social graph, and can incorporate connections from all the social platforms in which you participate.
Google’s need to force people into using Google Plus means its social search is currently decidedly less inclusive than Bing’s, and results in a spattering of Google Plus links muddying your main returns.
Microsoft did not waste the opportunity to highlight that it is offering “social search done right.” And so it shouldn’t. Well done Microsoft.
But…
Will it be enough to make people swap over to Bing? Probably not in the volume that Microsoft desperately needs.
If Bill Gates’ former company are not going to compete in the social sphere it has to start making more meaningful inroads into search. And figures originating from anywhere other than Microsoft suggest this still is not happening.
What do you think about Bing’s version of social search?
Will ‘Bing’ ever become the verb to replace ‘Google’?
