Does the search engine Bing actually work? Why won’t Bing index my new website? Bing produces inconsistent results. Why?

Many people have complained about Bing not indexing new web sites.There does not seem to be a reason for some sites not showing up in Bing, but it’s a problem which needs addressing, not least because many good resources may not be showing up in relevant searches. This post aims to provide some search results in order to help you decide which search engine is better, Bing or Google.

Comparing Results
Google is the number search engine by a long way. It is easy to use and always seems to provide relevant results. Let’s see how Google and Bing compare.

On Sunday 21st Feb I searched for the following from the UK;
“Village Bells Ealing” – A fine local public house which serves good food and offers very friendly service.
Results
Bing – The top 10 results do not give me anything close to what I need. The web site does not appear to be listed anywhere!
Google – Thanks to Google I have found the web site I was searching for at the top of the results.

“Cargo Oxford Street ” – One of Southampton’s most popular bars in the upmarket area of Oxford Street (I have no affiliation to this bar)
Results
Bing – No first page results take me where I need to go. Results at number 1 and 2 are both directory results with the telephone number I am looking for.
Google – Result number 2 is the Cargo web site. The exact site I was hoping to find.

“The Rose Bowl” – Hampshire cricket ground and popular location for corporate events
Results
Bing – At the top spot, The Rose Bowl Stadium (America). This is the wrong statium. The link I am looking for sits at number 5 on the first page of Bing.
Google – Thankfully, what I amm looking for is right there in front of me at number 1.

“The Book Shop Cranleigh” – This book shop is a small independant which I use to buy books.
Results
Bing – The web site I am looking is not listed at all.
Google – The web site I am looking for is at number 1 of the results page.

“Web Designers Southampton” – In a bid to find my own web site I search for Web Designs in Southampton.
Results
Bing – Nothing. I’m not listed.
Google – Out of 817,000 results I am number 20. Thankfully for me, Bing is not as much of a big player in the search industry anymore!

Conclusion
After a selection of searches using both Bing and Google it is evident that results vary by a wild margin.  The search engine with the most relevant results was clearly Google on this occasion. Bing scrapes the barrel with some shoddy search results which, in most cases are not even relevant. Google benefits massively from using my location to determine search results. Bing clearly does not do this as it offered me locations in America when I was searching for something situated in Southampton (which is the same location I was searching from).

How we determine relevancy of results may vary from person to person, and this example only includes local searches for small businesses. The test is not conclusive, but personally I can say which search engine I will be using. It will be the same one which I trust to deliver me the best result every time and the one which I believe will not waste my time. Google.

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 21st, 2010 at 6:28 pm and is filed under Personal Rantings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.