Bing (Microsoft) Open An Account With Bing (Microsoft) Bing is the latest iteration of the search engine offering from Microsoft, and advertising options are available at Microsoft adCenter, the online sales center for advertising options on Microsoft properties. Bing debuted on May 28, 2009 and is billed as a “decision engine” rather than a “search” engine, implying that Bing provides answers for decisions, with the slogan “Bing & decide.” The homepage image changes each day, and the interface is simple and clear, with the search query box positioned strategically and little else showing on the default screen. The pay-per-click advertising platform has been carried over from Live Search pretty much intact, although changes may occur in the future. The news that Yahoo! has finally reached an accord with Microsoft to integrate their search eventually under the Bing umbrella may lead to further changes as the deal progresses and is put into place. For now, the advertising opportunities for pay per click are the standard bid-for-position. As with Google, there is a large emphasis placed on relevancy of advertising. Advertising is still managed through the adCenter interface. Early indications show a lot of variety in the number of paid ads displayed — for some queries only a couple are shown, yet for others, a large number are displayed — which could be part of testing on Bing’s part for the most effective arrangement and partly a reflection of the changing adCenter marketplace as awareness of Bing grows and develops. Bing offers a number of media features that are popular with users, including a video search option, an image search, and a preview video thumbnail setup. The homepage image itself has a number of hotspots scattered throughout it that link to information about the image. In addition, a number of features incorporating “instant” answers to queries on sports scores for a specific day, team, etc., math calculations, plane ticket prices, tracking information for package companies, and others. Features such as these may serve to build loyalty to Bing among users to whom easily accessed information on such matters is important. Likewise, verticals related to these feature changes (e.g., travel and shopping in particular) could well find that the increased traffic makes PPC ads worth investigating more fully than in the past. The travel engine located at www.bing.com/travel is particularly well-organized and presented. Some enhancements that the debut of Bing has brought to the PPC table include a number of positive changes to the adCenter area. For one, the Microsoft Content Network is now live and out of beta, providing options that in the future will likely include small publishers (i.e., as Google does with its AdSense program). Also, there have been a number of changes to the adCenter Desktop tool, particularly for changing settings related to geotargeting, bid changes, and dayparting in a quick and easy-to-access manner. As well, the Ad Intelligence tool has been upgraded to help in monetizing keywords. Bing has garnered a fair amount of attention and its share of search is slowly growing. How much of this is due to the newness of the search engine and people’s curiosity about it is difficult to measure. What is key to advertisers, however, is that there has never been a better time to give it a try if you aren’t already advertising there. With a lot of attention placed on Bing, your ads are likely to do better than ever during this phase. If Microsoft keeps up the pace with innovations such as its video search capabilities and if things progress smoothly with the integration of Yahoo! into the mix, Bing may finally have hit the nail on the head for Microsoft in its quest to challenge Google’s supremacy in all matters search.
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