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Gadgetell decided to do a Coke vs. Pepsi scenario, but with Google vs. Bing.  You know, put them head to head and search out the same material to see how they compared.  I admit that I am one of those people that is so used to going to Google to look everything up, that even if Bing is better, it is going to be a hard habit to break.  It’s like a cheesy 80s song.

There has been so much hoopla surrounding these two search engines lately.  When Bing first came out, I had heard all about how you could search out porn and watch it with a mere hover of your mouse.  When I shared this with you all, I even had one reader tell me I was being too hard on Bing.  Now, to clarify, I never said Bing wasn’t a good search engine.  Just that it may be one you don’t want your 13 year old with the raging hormones using when you aren’t in the room.  Because if you don’t think little Johnny is searching the word “sex,” you are naive.

What really made me decide to do this was my amusement over the fact that there seems to be such a schoolyard scuffle going on between Google and Bing right now.  Apparently Bing Travel was down for a bit a few days ago and Google took around four or five days to update the fact that it was up and running again in their search ranking. 

When you ran a search for “Bing” in Google (not “Bing Travel”, but “Bing” itself), the number two spot informed you that the site was down.  So, then we had Microsoft tweeting Google telling them how they might want to take a look at that and update it.  Amusing too that Bing is Googling themselves.

So, to compare apples to apples, I first did the obvious and Googled and Binged myself.  I got a lot of the same results on both sites throughout the pages, although not in the same order.  I was kind of surprised with Bing’s order.  They put as the top ranking me as a writer for Appletell.  While I do also write for Appletell, I write more regularly for Gadgetell, and I have written for them longer.  I obviously have many more articles and views as a result on Gadgetell, so, I would have expected that one to come up higher.  I am unsure of how that one worked that way.

The next word to try out was “Hershey.”  I had a Hershey’s Take 5 candy bar near me while I was writing this.  I got almost all of the same results on the first page.  The notable exceptions being that Bing actually showed you the stock quotes right there on the page, instead of just offering you a link to them like Google did.  Google had a little thumbnail of a map to get to Hershey which would link you to (obviously) Google maps.  Bing didn’t offer anything like that, at least on the first page.

On to sports, I searched for the “Dallas Cowboys.”  Obviously the top ranking on both pages was the official homepage of the Cowboys.  But, I think I liked Bing’s results better for this search other than that being the same.  I like how it offered up “related searches” with links to Cowboys Apparel, Tickets, Dancers, Coaches, etc.  And right at the top left of the page, there is also the section where Bing gives you “Images,” “Schedule,” “Rumors,” “Wallpaper,” “Jerseys,” and “Coach.”  Plus the fact that NFL.com didn’t even show up on Google until almost the bottom of the page seemed kind of odd.  And all they offer off to the side is a link to Bank of America.

I did a couple of other words, and for the most part, I liked how Bing laid out the results better than Google.  More information, but separated and easily available, and still relevant.  It wasn’t of highest relevance in all cases for what I was looking for, but I think that will come better in time. 

I think Google may be getting so testy because they are so aware of the fact that finally, they have a serious contender in the search arena.  They are so used to being king of the search hill, they aren’t taking it well at all. 

Maybe they should search the phrase “competition is healthy” or “good sport.”  Because hate to break it to you, Google, I think Bing is going to be be badda-booming it for good.