After months in Beta, Microsoft has announced that they are to upgrade their search engine Bing to its full version in the UK. Going head to head with Google, Britain will be the third country, behind the US and Canada, to have the full version. Microsoft’s consumer and online products managing director Ashley Highfield said “We have had a dedicated team of 50 people working hard since June to make our results work better for people in the UK. In particular, we want to excel in e-commerce because British people outweigh the US in terms of online shopping, and we wanted to make sure it could help you find a TV or camera in time for Christmas.”
Gradually increasing its markets share in countries where it has already launched, Bing is on the map to have a crack at Google’s current 70per cent dominant share. Creating search results including site links, maps, and website data, Bing offers a more visual approach than rival Google. “We want to bring an end to the current ‘in out’ nature of search. Where you click through to a result, find it’s not what you are looking for and then go back and search again. Our unique selling point is to give you the answers that you want in one page,” further explained Mr Highfield. He added that their largest effort would be to break consumer habit of going to Google first. “We know it’s a slow process. But Bing is landing extremely well as a cool brand with early adopters. And in this situation, we are the cool underdog. I believe that the popular conception of Google is shifting, the idea that Google equals cool and Microsoft equals nerdy is on the way out, a process that is being helped by our other well received products, such as Windows 7.”
