Disclaimer
The opinions expressed herein are my own personal opinions and do not represent anyone else's view in any way, including those of my employer.
© Copyright 2009
The opinions expressed herein are my own personal opinions and do not represent anyone else's view in any way, including those of my employer.
© Copyright 2009
Today, I read a great article on the advantages of Microsoft’s new search engine Bing: Google VS Bing User Centric Eye Tracking Study.
The main advantage that Bing has over Google is its 3 column format. Because the first column on the left contains useful information, users tend to notice the sister column on the right, the ads. Here’s the eye tracking study image, which shows Bing on the left and Google on the right…
Specifically, notice the right side of both images. Bing (left) had more users reading the ads than Google (right).
All in all, I think eye tracking studies have limited purpose. Yes, they show the movement of the eyes, but they fail to take into account what the user is actually thinking. For instance, even if users always notice Bing ads, it doesn’t mean that those users will find them helpful. In fact, users may only be noticing the ads because Bing is new and they are trying to figure it all out. If Bing fails to provide a solid user experience and quality search results, then it will not gain any traction against the other search engines.
Microsoft is spending considerable advertising dollars on promoting Bing.com, and they hope it will be a Google killer. Unfortunately, I just don’t see it happening as the search engine doesn’t seem to have any huge advantage over Google or Yahoo. Also, I don’t see any better results than what MSN or Live.com provided.
So far, I see no improvement in Microsoft’s search algorithm. If I want to find information, and find it fast, I will continue to use Google and Yahoo.
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3:12 pm - July 6th, 2009
Some thoughts:
I agree that a lot of this Bing vs. Google assumes the algorithms are equivalent in terms of results. Personally, there are still differences…
Eye tracking has some limited uses. This is certainly true. I fully agree and often there is too much emphasis on it. That said, consider sponsored advertisements. Before the era of click-thru ads to generate spend, advertisements held more than simply call to action responses… there was brand awareness.
How many times has anyone ever clicked on a Tide detergent ad? Does P&G want to users to click? Sure, but part of the ad spend is on brand awareness and that is free.
So, for eye tracking, the value is two-fold: The more people who look, the more potential opportunity you have to get a click AND you also get more brand awareness and no one would complain that brand awareness is necessarily a bad thing, especially when free!
Now, you have another good point about the novelty of the new design. That is an area we will address in an upcoming study…
Regards,
Gavin Lew
User Centric, Inc.