Raw Bytes Computer News KPBX FM 91.1 Spokane Public Radio National Public Radio Network Frank Delaney Producer Broadcast on Wednesday Morning 7:35 AM During Morning Edition Support Public Radio ! The Theater Of the Mind

In computer news this week 06/03/2009 And now still another search engine – our 2^nd in 2 weeks – and this one’s from Microsoft .. Just 2 weeks ago I reviewed Wolfram Alpha – a new kind of computational knowledge engine that appears to be so high brow that most users can’t figure out how to use it. Before that last July a group of ex-google employees introduced a search engine named Cuil (sp) which now appears to be so little used it’s not so cool. Then google introduced their own web browser named Chrome, which had a less than shiny debut. So now Microsoft has announced their own new search engine named Bing – not to be confused with Spokane’s own Bing Crosby – to replace their older Live Search. Bing, according to Microsoft, is designed to deliver a more functional experience than existing search engines, including Google's. That is, queries entered into Bing yield not only information related to the search term, but also links to sites where users can make purchases and engage in other related activities. So what’s really going on here with all these new search engines and browsers ? It’s good old American business competition. According to Information Week, Google presently controls about 64% of the U.S. search market. Yahoo, the No. 2 player, holds 21% of the market. Let’s see, that’s 85% Microsoft owns only about 8% of the market, according to researchers at ComScore. That’s 93%. So that means that newer search engines like Cuil and Wolfram Alpha, along with their older counterparts such as Dog pile, Lycos, monster crawler, all the web, ask jeeves, hotbot, inktomi, looksmart, overture and others – all share this tiny 7 percentage of the search engine marketplace. This reminds me of the old mainframe computer world, which was known as Snow White and the 7 dwarves, with IBM of course being Snow White, and the dwarves being Univac, burroughs, and others. Today if you go to Bing you can read a Welcome to Bing message which says: “You probably didn’t wake up today expecting an entirely new search experience. But – Bing! – here it is. So, why a new search engine? Why the new name? Why now? Well, because even though search is a pretty amazing thing, the current state of search engines has some equally amazing statistics. So far in 2009, there are four and a half websites created EVERY SECOND as the web continues to expand. While more searchable information is cool, nearly half of all searches don’t result in the answer that people are seeking. At the same time, the way the world searches is changing. You want more than just information. You want knowledge that leads to action. The truth is you’ve evolved. It’s time search caught up. So we had an idea. Start over. And we did. We took a new approach to go beyond search to build what we call a decision engine. With a powerful set of intuitive tools on top of a world class search service, Bing will help you make smarter, faster decisions. We sincerely hope that the next time you need to make an important decision, you’ll Bing and decide. Thank you, The Microsoft Bing Team” In all respect to Microsoft – I have to say the name of their new search engine reminds me of the term Bada Bing from the Sopranos – but believe me – Microsoft has the muscle to gain market share.

For Raw Bytes This is Frank Delaney (C) 2009 MTA Micro Technology Associates http://www.mtamicro.com/kpbx.html PO Box 31522 Spokane, Wa 99223-1522 (509)624-7230 mailto:frank@mtamicro.com