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View Full Version : To google or to bing? that is the question!


johnfowles
06-22-2009, 10:23 AM
You might have noticed that there has been much chatter on the internet about Microsoft's broadside swipe at Google.
I have tried it and liked some features a lot
So much so that
http://www.bing.com

is now my "home page" when i open the Internet Exploder rival Firefox
Every day the background is a nice photo of somewhere in the world and today 22 June it is a splendid view of the iconic Sydney Opera House.
http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/9943/bing22june2009.jpg
With all these pictures there are little boxes that appear as you hover over the picture, and as you should be able to see for yourself in the screenshot above one opens with an invite
""to tour this wild wonderland"
If you click the profferred link you reach:-
http://www.bing.com/videos/results.aspx?q=lonely+planet+australia&go=&form=hphot2


a page of (OK time wasting video links)for Aussie features
which neatly IMO illustrates the best advantage bing has over google if you hover over each video link it starts playing so you get a long preview before selecting it
If instead you use the videos link in bing's vertical menu on the left and search for our hero you get
http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=gordon+lightfoot&go=&form=QBVR

where again you are treated to a lengthy preview of each video, useful to select which video you really want to watch or find
Have fun
The other great feature is that for all web searches is you can a useful and good preview of any of the found results' content by simply hovering to the immediate right of the text of a result when another popup er umm pops up to reveal the opening text of that web page
so for example in a bing web search for "Gordon Lighfoot" you could see the opening claim on Wayne's website :-
http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/571/bingsearchpreview.jpg

johnfowles
06-22-2009, 11:06 AM
As a good example of time wasting on page 13 of the Australian video results I spotted a link to:-
http://www.pcaviator.com/shop/viewAProduct.php?pid=982

where I read with interest:-
"Around the World in 80 Flights (FSX/FS2004)
An Epic 80-Leg Journey Around The World!"
"Interest" because I do have Microsoft's Flight Simulator FSX so I could and probably will buy this US$34.95 product which features
The entire trip is a little over 400 hours flying time
The trip covers nearly 35000 miles!
Over 112 countries are either visited or flown over!

On the page linked above there is a link to download a 10MB trailer from which I made this sample screenshot
http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/5951/sanfranciscoi.jpg