Have you “Bing-ed it On” yet? I took the Bing Challenge: Google-4, Bing-0

The war between Bing and Google continues. If you’ve seen the commercial or the ads across the internet, you’ll know that Bing is having a search challenge between Google in their latest big marketing push against the top search engine.

The challenge consists of users logging on to a special website dedicated to the Bing challenge. Users are then prompted to enter five search terms. After each search term is entered, they’re taken to a page displaying search results from Bing and Google side by side. You are unable to see which results come from which search engine, and the results are even formatted the same so you aren’t given a hint. After looking through the results, users pick which results they prefer. This continues for four more searches. At the end, the search engine with the most preferred search results wins. Bing even shows which searches that were chosen were from Bing and which searches were from Google.

I took the test, and after five searches, Google was the clear winner. I preferred Google for the first four searches I made. The final search I put as a draw, because the search results were very similar. My search terms were not generic, and were relatively specific. Why? When searching something, I’m typically looking for something specific, not like the search terms Bing suggests users to use when they first enter the Bing it On webpage (like jobs, baby names, and music downloads).

“Bing it On” is an interesting marketing scheme that Bing has created for themselves. In the end, if users had preferred Bing results, these users might being using Bing, which  means more users for Bing, more searches, and more advertising dollars. If users had preferred Google results, these users probably will never use Bing, especially after discovering they never preferred Bing search results. It is a risky move on Bing’s part, but they likely think the risk is worth it.

Also, think of this- not only is this an interesting marketing campaign that gets users involved with Bing, it gives Bing its own marketing study. Forget the consumer interviews, questionnaires, case studies, and payments to participants. Run a marketing campaign that not only gets you brand awareness, but gets you consumer input as added value. It’s quite an interesting ploy, and it goes to show you- maybe Bing is smarter than their search results.

Want to take the test for yourself? Click here.