The James Kilgour BlogA Life Blog.

Bing: the new Microsoft search engine. Now available in Beta in the UK!

I was quite intrigued to test Bing, and find out what the fuss is about. Since Microsoft are rumored to be spending $100 million advertising Bing, there must be something special. Surely.

My first thought on loading the Bing Homepage was wow! It looks really nice, with some really great background pictures. On my 4mb Internet Connection, the picture did take a moment to load.

I then did a quick search: camera. It seemed like a good plan, and I was expecting some shopping listings, as shown in the Bing preview video.

I was disappointed with what I got. Just links, like Google. Wow. Obviously shopping and other cool new features are only going to be available in the US, at least for a while. This seems typical, as UK users always seem to get left out

However, there are some cool features working in the UK! Such as the live preview pain: this is quite a good idea on Microsoft’s part, and something that I think I will actually use. It would be easier and quicker though to have the orange dot on the other side of the listing. (You’ll see what I mean when you try).

Another good development is the ability to preview videos. Like the Preview Pain, this cuts down the amount of clicking needed for searching.

You can also watch the full video through Bing.

My first impressions of Bing is that it’s a great search engine, that I will continue to use. I would like to see the full features that are available in the US in the UK though. The questions everyone seems to be asking is Bing vs. Google. I think that Bing takes the prize: something I never expected to think.

JK

Homepages Friends is a weirdly named site, that at first look may appear to be a scam. I’ve been using it, (out of curiosity) for a few days now, and the earnings from the site have started to pour in.

Basically, you register quickly, and get your own homepage. On it, is a Yahoo! search box. All you have to do is use it like normal; like you would Google or Yahoo! itself. The results are identical to Yahoo!.

Every search is recorded in your account however (not the actual keyword), and the next day, the number of searches will add up to earnings. The site pays fairly well; 2p for every search. It soon adds up, and the real way to start monopolising is with friends. When your refer them, you get an additional 10% of everything they earn, plus 5% of anyone they refer. Once your account reaches £20, you can request payment by PayPal.

Being paid to search actually, is something Google should be doing. They earn buckets from searchers like you and me, through the millions of pounds made in Ad revenues.

If you want to give the service a try, click here. It’ll sign you up as a friend of mine, and I’ll get 10% of the amount you earn (It won’t affect your profits). Leave a comment if you do!

JK

Hi. Just a quick update about the Blog. I’ve written a search script, which can be accessed by clicking here. Type any keyword into it, and it will show you a full list of Posts relating to the criteria. Hope this helps.

JK

P.S: The search script is hosted on an external server.

One of the coolest features of iTunes is Cover Flow. It’s a really cool way of searching through your digital music library; as long as you have the album art.

So a new website uses a similar features to allow you to search through the web. It’s called Searchme.com, and by typing in a keyword and clicking search it shows you a cool preview of all the matches.

Actually, it works really well, even though it’s still in Beta. Better, it has an extensive index of sites; pretty much just as good as Google.

So a cool little site that is very useful. Google, watch out!

JK