Maybe it works, but seeing ads on Google for Microsoft’s new Bing search engine just doesn’t seem to send quite the right message. Plus, the ads link to a nearly blank landing page, since Bing hasn’t launched yet.
Microsoft is rumored to be spending up to $100 million to advertise the Bing launch. I wonder how much of that Google will end up getting…
There are also ads pointing to a Ning site called BingHub. I can’t imagine why whoever created it is spending cold hard cash to promote that, either.
Thanks for the tip, Gur.
Update: Bing ads on Yahoo, too:
Makes perfect sense to me. There’s nothing on that site to index yet, so vital to be on top when people search Google for more info on Bing. Ads are the only way to do that right now. Smart move.
except that it makes them look like morons. I’d fire the agency if they did this independently.
ignoring competitors won’t make them disappear
MS already acknowledged Google has all the search market share right now, everyone knows. Makes no sense not to pay to be on top for the term right now.
Great products advertise themselves. See Google.
http://www.tech...now-what-it-is/
whatever.
Yes, they Google’s products advertise themselves all the time like when they put the “try Chrome” link right on the main search page which you can see plainly from IE or FireFox. If Microsoft did that they’d have anti-trust nightmares. Google is awesome but they play the game like everyone else. I give them Kudos for not filtering the ads. However, going to a mostly blank page is not helping the MS image any for having questionable execution on certain critical product launches.
i love microsoft cash.
@Robin, whether there is anything to index or not, there will be already hell lot of incoming links, increasing bing’s pagerank.
“great products advertise themselves”
yea, google spends $25 million on advertising last quarter. thats advertising itself?
It’s like standing in front of Walmart and handing out pamphlets about your own low cost retail chain..Now, that’s superb business sense, I would say..
To whom?
From where I’m sitting the end result is that Google users know about the new Microsoft search engine.
Are you really saying they shouldn’t be buying AdWords? That they let these BingHub charlatans claim the top ad placement for their brand?
Now THAT would be stupid.
Yes. The more I read from these techcrunch guys, the dumber they sound. But I have to say, I enjoy reading MGs posts.
Didn’t get your logic? Why would you advertise now when there is nothing on your site?
In any case, they are showing up 3rd in the algo results. So not having ‘anything to index’ doesn’t prevent you for appearing in algo results. Where you appear is detected by how popular you are, not what is on your site to index
well there is a button on the landing page with ‘more info’ for the curious out there. and you’re right about the algo part, but point remains that it only went live today.
@AK actually the statement “Where you appear is detected by how popular you are, not what is on your site to index” is a huge misconception by many people.
Content has a direct role in your position at Google if you know what you’re doing from an SEO perspective. Popularity is only part of the algorithm.
Sure, if you take two sites that are identical and one has more popularity, that one will show up higher. Yet I continually get client sites to the top organically with little to no links inbound, even when competitors are “popular”.
In any case, MS wants to control the space for Bing from day one, especially when millions are hearing / reading the buzz. So it really is smart marketing.
Very smart move. Worrying what a tiny % of tech snobs in the overall population think about this move would be the older version of Microsoft.
I guess it is will like kurl dot com very soon. I don’t even remember how to spell that domain name.
Watch My Trading Account Grow Day by Day
Why is this stupid? The bing.com is ranking 4th, putting the ad up makes it significantly easier for people to find your product. As for the blank page, yeah Microsoft started their Adwords campaign a few days early, big deal.
it comes up for searches on “bing.” anyone who can’t find bing.com but knows “bing” isn’t the kind of customer I’d want anyway.
I think you underestimate how technologically inept many people are. My parents type “youtube” into google every time they want to go to the site. If it didn’t show up in the first few results I think they would either get confused, or just move on out of impatience.
Microsoft probably has enough cash to cover their Adwords campaign in their couch cushions, why no take that extra step to drive traffic?
oh, no, I know. I’ve been trying to get Google to tell me how many people a day type in “google.com” on google. All they say is it’s a “significant” number of people.
I’d bet a significant amount of money that some form of google would be one of the top 3 search terms. Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if it was #1.
Michael Arrington, do you see how that comment makes you look like an unbelievable snob? By your reasoning, non-Internet-savvy computer users should stay away from the Internet.
I highly doubt Bing will make any kind of dent in the web search market, but if it performs even slightly better than Live Search I think they’d call it a success. I think it’s a smart move from Microsoft to pay Google for ads as it is, by ridiculous margins, the most widely used search engine.
I see all these dumb posts about how the name will not work, regardless of the quality of the service, on how it’s doomed to fail because Google is the king of search, how it’s such an exercise in futility to even try.
I cringe at the thought that nobody realizes that we, the people who ultimately use their products, need Google (and Apple, and Microsoft, and Yahoo, etc, etc, etc.) to have some competition in order for innovation to continue and for their products to improve continuously.
A good decision to get the Bings ads on Google and Yahoo!. I think you have to make your product well known and if it means advertising on rival sites then let it be so. The worst thing is sit down and do nothing.
Indeed. As a developer, I use Google for mostly everything related to my work. However, I use Live Image Search for searching images, and Live Video Search for searching videos. Why? The Live Image Search software is fantastic. Images are organized. I don’t have to press “Next”, ever. I can see the images in full-size without having to leave the image list.
The Live Video search finds videos from EVERY video source out there, and I can preview the videos by just rolling the mouse over them. If I wanna see the full vid I don’t lose my video list. Again, the software works.
The majority of casual Internet users don’t know this, because Microsoft didn’t make an effort to market and advertise these services. Almost as if they were ashamed of their work, when a lot of their Live services are, honestly, pretty good.
Of course, cult brand loyalists who will bash anything Microsoft does just because it’s Microsoft and not Google/Apple/the current “cool” company will disagree.
Live Mesh, Writer, Photo Gallery, Silverlight, etc are all examples of good software with very little advertising and marketing, resulting in little use due to the average user’s ignorance of their existence.
I don’t know what their deal is. They want their stuff to be known, but make very little effort to make it so. At least with Bing it seems like they got a clue (on the advertising part).
Makes sense to me. Bing is just like any other web company and needs to protect its brand on search engines. Also, brand queries convert the highest… I’m sure Microsoft wants all the traffic for their brand going to their site, rather than spammy / unofficial sites. (Disclosure: future msft fte.)
Seems like a nobrainer correct.
I wonder if they’re putting ads in Live.com as well…
I clicked on Bing’s home page link and take me to decisionengine.com where there’s a video running
I say they should use whatever outlet they have available. For example, Microsoft should watch Twitter mentions, as Google should, even if they don’t have real-time search nailed. Go to where the potential customers are.
you, Robin and everyone else who disagrees with me is incorrect.
No problem.
I’ve been wrong many times.
I agree with Michael. Out of fear.
I disagree that you’re incorrect.
that’s fine, but you’re wrong.
I think this comment thread just failed the Turing test.
It should read “are incorrect”. Poor syntax ergo Arrington is incorrect.
I agree with you Louis.
Preview link http://www.bing.com/ComingSoon – Badda-Bing!
Bah Humbug to all
Hey guess what. Google advertises on Live and Yahoo.
where?
Google advertise 100s of products on Live and Yahoo. Not 100% if they actually advertise their ’search’ but AdSense, Docs, iGoogle, AdWords etc are heavily advertised.
Google has hundreds of products?
Google has advertised on Yahoo. Google also followed another thing, they offered $2 or something like that for every download of google pack. So what people did was used that to buy keywords like real player or picasa and bidded on yahoo/google/live for those keywords and made people download google pack.
Its not happening now, but i am 100% sure about this.
Microsoft could have followed similar back door approach
So you are completely wrong in saying that google never advertised their products on other search engines.
here, for one: http://search.y...=google+adsense
Google also advertises on hulu…the video site that, you know, will actually make money someday.
Type “online advertising” into Live Search and you’ll get the following Google ad:
Google Online Advertising
- adwords.google.com
Get better ROI from your website. Try Google AdWords today.
http://search.l...=&form=QBRE
Ads for Bing also showed up when I used the term “search engine” on Google. Interesting. Will Google shut them down? http://bit.ly/782BS
Not anymore… may be QS kicked in..
I think its borderline brilliant of Microsoft to try to fight their ‘old stodgy image’ this way.
Advertising on their largest competitor, the new commercials. Hell, all they need now is Steve Jobs to be seen running OSX and they are cool again
All joking aside, it’s not like TC isn’t giving them enough free publicity for this right? As far as binghub.com, all they needed was a few days of ads and they got a bump from TC with a link, 100% wort it!
ok, but what does BingHub do now? What’s their long term goal? Why does it even exist?
AdSense
who knows and who cares! they just got their hits now TC is wasting its ping/power/pipe on this.
And, given where it’s hosted, why didn’t they call it BingNing?
Totally agree! It seems to me in the past they’d never have done this, and like I said elsewhere, I smell Ray Ozzie. The Wired article on him was awesome!
I think Microsoft has really missed a great opportunity to be much more innovative and imaginative with all aspects of Bing.
Firstly Bing, the product should have been developed as a standalone rogue subsidiary of Live Search, without Microsoft’s Corporate fingerprints all over it.
Secondly the marketing and advertising campaigns of Bing, should have been based around clever guerilla spots and developed through word of mouth.
Google, MySpace, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter all became pillars of the Global Web by offering ‘must have’ services but starting on a slow burner.
Bing should have followed this same route as it could have become the next big thing.
Bing is being launched like a Search Sequel for Microsoft. Make that Microsoft Search Part 4.
I wish Microsoft all the best with Bing.
But did Bing have to be launched with a Bang.
Microsoft wants to be the heavyweight champion of the Search World.
But this Bing sounds like a dud punch from the old Batman TV Series.
Seconds out Round Two!
I’m not a fan of a lot of the hair brain ideas that Microsoft has come up with in recent years. But in this case I think using Google is smart. I smell Ray Ozzie here. In Wired he talked about acting like a start-up again, I think very wisely. And MSFT using Google is MSFT not acting like the king of the hill, like they used to whether they were or not. I like it. It’s actually kind if cool, using Google to launch Bing. Who cares? Nobody knows? I’d MSFT refused to use Google out of some sense of historic pride, THAT would be dumb.
Bing looks like a rebranded version of powerset with a splash of cuil.
Is that the case?
Is that what they did with powerset?
This search engine looks pretty spiffy indeed. But it looks like everything Microsoft releases. Ready for 1995.
They’re still living in the last decade and this new Bing engine is the proof.
this is cool
The only thing Techcrunch guys does is :
1. Bash Microsoft
2. Bash Microsoft
3. Bash Yahoo
4. Worship Google
5. Praise Twiter
And they can give all illogical, non sense argument to support it
First, the only thing you are actually doing is addressing an assumption that TechCrunch makes: companies perform consistently, and make consistent good or bad choices in a changing environment.
However, you only address it–there is no sense argument to, well, say anything.
Man, can’t agree with you enough. If MS stuffs up, fine, say it, but TC and so many other tech sites just love to bash MS while worshiping google. It’s just bizarre. Google’s not perfect or somehow more virtuous, but for some reason they get basically no bad press. All I want is some serious, critical and objective reporting. Too much to ask?
It is too much to as from TC.
Ask.com did a bunch of TV spots and then stopped. The spots showed the “superior” features of their search engine in everyday searching. Microsoft with all their “I am a PC ” advertising have not really shifted the perception created by the Apple “I am a Mac” campaign.
Sure advertise on T.V. on Google wherever you want but unless at the end of the day people really get better results and tell their friends about it and the eco-system of “knowledgeable people” trickles down the message that Bing rocks, it is all a waste of money.
It’s also shocking to see Bing video on Youtube: http://www.yout...h?v=11OOz1I-gCk
True – They even have a YouTube channel. Interesting.
They should be buying ads on facebook, they are really inexpensive right now the targeting is pretty awesome.
“it comes up for searches on “bing.” anyone who can’t find bing.com but knows “bing” isn’t the kind of customer I’d want anyway.”
ACTUALLY, these are the type of idiot customers I want. They are easy to make a profit off of unlike smart and savy customers who will find what they want for free. (ie MP3 files, pictures of hot girls, etc.)
@Mike this is Brand Ads, not click ads. You read the text and understand what Bing is and how it is different from Google: DECISION. Micrsoft is trying to associate DECISION with Bing.
LOL-I like the shot of the women’s chest on the Bing.com youtube video. It reminds me of the kitty shot of Sharon Stone from Basic Instinct, which is playing on hulu at the moment by the way.
Type “online advertising” into Live Search and you’ll get the following Google ad:
Google Online Advertising
- adwords.google.com
Get better ROI from your website. Try Google AdWords today.
Bing: Another failed attempt by Microsoft to catch up to google, while google is too busy trying to catch up to twitter.
The fact that MS is still trying to catch up the static search market should tell you how behind the curve microsoft is!
Bing is the son of Bob, the cousin of MS Money and Internet explorer.. all monumental failures.
can you say “desperate”?
IE was a monumental failure? Hmmm…
Everyone: click on the bing adds, that way google gets all of MSFT’s 100 million dollars in the allotted advertising budget quickly, LOL
What’s the big deal about them advertising across platforms? I see ZipCar ads in the bus. I see Amazon ads on eBay.
I certainly don’t understand that landing page. It’s not even anything!! It looks like a failed afternoon project, which to me looks really horrible.
Seriously, while Microsoft may acknowledge Google being the market leader, but to have links coming to a blank page.. It leaves a pretty bad impression on me as a user. It’s like roaring about your Bakery when all that exists about it are mere walls.
Either I haven’t used Live search in a while but it looks very like the bing previews!
Microsoft still does not seem to get it.
this is really intersting. But microsoft will never catch up with google.
Bing is rubbish. I can do better with my Google Custom Search Engine…easily…compare results for yourself…http://www.thebitbot.com
My favorite part is that Bing Surfboards is still at the top! There SEO firm has to be the best! I’m going to go buy a Bing board to make sure they can still stay on top!
Maybe Google owns Bing Surfboards as an injoke. So they can surf the Google Wave.
I only care to see how Bing.com will affect my paid search business. As a PPC marketer, I would not hesitate to buy traffic on Bing if it can attract a lot of the right traffic. It’s time Google stops on its monopoly. It will definitely make Google loosen up their rules and guidelines on paid advertising.
When I saw that ad the other day running on Google AdWords, I laughed..LOL
why? this is a brilliant idea. Yeah you are paying your competitor but since most people are using your competitor product it is the perfect strategy to get attention to you.
Advertising Bing on Google is cool,
but what Shri Ballmer really needs to do is break some coconuts for the God Ganesa and do some other things that I detail in my post to help MS get out this Little Train That Could role its gotten into.
To propitiate the Gods and protect your enterprise from the wrath of entropy your esteemed readers may be pleased to visit http://spritele...soft-style.html
Whats in a name – MSN, Live or Bing? What really matters is results delivered! If Bing delivers what MSN or Live could not, why, Google Search could prove to be history!
I suppose that any given word will have a negative connotation in some language somewhere in the world… but then the fact that its the Chinese language that has a negative meaning to Bing is unfortunate (I’m told Bing means disease in Chinese). If this is true, it means one in five persons will find it negative! If it had to have a negative connotation, why didn’t Microsoft choose a tiny fraction of humankind, rather than the largest chunk of it?
Seriously speaking, I think the hype created is definitely focusing the right thing and if Microsoft delivers, why, we’d all stand to gain!
Like Windows 7, which we have come to love after using it for about 2 weeks (read our review of Windows 7 at http://www.well.../windows7rc.htm), Bing appears promising!
Many a miss between the cup and the lip though…
Googlistas, go and try Bing for the very first time. Ask this: Why Bing? The results will show you why not! Microsoft will spend millions of dollars to promote Bing to rival Google. This will be their biggest failure ever. They just don’t know it yet!
If you try the same entry at Google, you can see at least 5 results to why or why not. I only found this on the second page: http://www.decisionengine.com Way to go Microsoft!
As Microsoft puts it at the very end of their promo at the above site: “The world sure doesn’t need just another search engine”. Yet unfortunately Bing is not even a candidate for a decision engine. Try today “Air France” on both Google & Bing. You will again see why.
The most ironic issue is that they have a microsite to answer this simple question: “Why Bing?” and their search engine can not even decide for their own sake and pull this site in the first page of results. At this microsite, below the promotional video there is a button called “why Bing”. Ouch, that must hurt…
They better spend all of the 80 million dollars on Google. At least they would have a brand that they can later use for a later version of windows.
Would it be legal for google to “bid” USD 20 per click for the term bing? If they did, they could make at least 20 bucks every time some one clicked on the microsoft ad …