Can Bing.com be Microsoft’s Answer to Google ?

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer sent an email to the employees confirming the launch of Bing.com and it clearly portrayed their seriousness towards the business. Ballmer in his email mentioned that Bing.com, the new search engine from Microsoft is an extremely crucial step forward for MS in redefining search and expanding their share of the online advertising market.

In fact Microsoft is positioning Bing.com top be more than a search engine. They are calling it the decision engine. To quote Ballmer on this..

“With Bing, our goal is to do more than just make it easier for people to find information. Today, we’re delivering a powerful set of tools that will enable people to make faster, more informed decisions.

In short, Bing is a decision engine that goes beyond what people have come to think of as search—and what our competitors offer today.“

At present this search engine is available only to the Microsoft employees and from next week on it would be made public at Bing.com, till then you might like watching this video that shows Bing in action.

As with most major search engine launch a buzz has again started on the question if Bing is going to be the Google killer ? I think it is too early to comment or speculate on this because we haven’t yet seen the new engine in action.

With Google’s personalized search catching up and their extensive coverage of local search I think one of the main challenges that Bing would face ( if they plan to be a Google replacement) is in regards to local and personalized searches.