Users prefer Bing but unwilling to switch

An interesting new study by the guys over at Catalyst Group shows that although users like Microsoft’s new search engine Bing, they are unlikely to switch.  From a usability focus group of 12 (expected to capture 80-90% of issues), after using both engines 8 said they preferred Google while 4 said they liked Bing.  That being despite the fact that 82% preferred Bings design, 64% preferred Bings organisation of features and another 64% preferred Bings refinement and filtering options.  With regards to relevance of results, the majority of users thought both engines preformed equally well.  I think  this goes to show how entrenched Google has become in our thinking when it comes to search.  Even though Microsoft won 3 out of the 4 tests and tied the last, two thirds of users were unprepared to switch.  After all, we no longer search for something, we Google it!

What I found particularly insightful, was in seeking out participants for this study the researchers were unable to find anyone who hadn’t heard of Google, but none of the participants had heard of Bing.  Granted it’s a new engine, but it just goes to show the marketing mountain Microsoft has to climb if it wants to even get close to knocking Google off the top spot (although I’m sure having $100 million to throw at the problem won’t hurt!)

When it came to paid ads (searching for ‘digital cameras’) it seems that again Bing came out top with users spending 150% more time looking at the ad space at the top of the page (4.9s vs 2.0s), possibly due to the refinement options available at the top of the page.  With Google fairing a little better when it came to ‘Hotels’ search (2.7s vs 1.7s).

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One of the more innovative features found in Bing is its ‘quick preview’ option that lets you get an additional snippet of information on a site without having to visit it.  However this feature was only discovered by 1 of the 12 users (and only by accident).  When told about this feature, most users felt it wasn’t very useful and didn’t place much value in it, citing the information was not always representative of the site and often simply copied the information already presented in the search results.

What all of the above shows is that although Bing is far better than its predecessor, with so little to choose between Google and Bings search results and the fact that Google is now such a household name it is unlikely that people will switch in the droves that Microsoft would likely hope for.  Unless Bing has a few extra tricks up its sleeve don’t expect Google to be dethroned anytime soon.

Catalyst Group Bing V. Google Usability Study -

Image Credit: Google Lego Logo – Sean Kenney