Montreal SEO & Internet Marketing Blog

Microsoft launches Bing Search Engine 2 Days Early

Bing was originally scheduled for launch June 3, 2009, however, Microsoft’s “Decision Engine” went live today, and aims to compete with Google and divert its share with $80 Million in marketing.

In announcing the search engine May 28, 2009 Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said Bing (AKA Kumo) hopes to help users receive the information they’re searching for faster and that the decision engine goes beyond search to help customers deal with information overload. When we set out to build Bing, we grounded ourselves in a deep understanding of how people really want to use the Web. Bing is an important first step forward in our long-term effort to deliver innovations in search that enable people to find information quickly and use the information they’ve found to accomplish tasks and make smart decisions.

Bing Search Engine will replace Live search, and focuses on 4 key areas:

• Local information
• Travel
• Health care
• E-commerce

The main feature that I notice from the start is that aside from regular search results, certain queries offer categorized search results in the sidebar as well as related search, as seen below.

Also of interest, each thumbnail in the results of video searches will play the first 30 seconds of the video on mouse over, giving you a sneak preview before clicking the link. The world of Search Engine optimization just got another toy to play with – or rip apart, depending who’s sitting in front of the toy box.

Tags: Bing, Google, Microsoft

Google Earth/Maps About To Get Even Sweeter

Just before noon (EDT) on September 6 2008, GeoEye (formerly ORBIMAGE) successfully launched the highest resolution and most accurate commercial imaging satelite, GeoEye-1, into orbit from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California.. This week, on October 7, an image of Kutztown University in Pennsylvania was returned, the first location seen by the satellite when the camera doors opened, 423 miles above the surface of the earth while orbiting at 17,000 miles per hour (4.5 miles per second).

Google, the co-sponsor of the $502 Million project (along with The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency), will have exclusive online mapping rights to the images. The photo resolution of the GeoEye is 41 cm (16 in), meaning objects of this size may be clearly seen – however government restrictions will allow Google to use only 50 cm (20 in). Currently, Google Earth’s highest resolution images are approximately 60 cm (24 in).

According to Kate Hurowitz, a spokeswoman for Google, the visual difference between the current 60 cm resolution and the upcoming 50 cm resolution, will be that of clearly seeing rooftops compared to clearly seeing vehicles.

GeoEye-2 is scheduled to launch in 2011 or 2012, and has a planned resolution of 25 cm (9.8 in).

Click on the image below for a closer view of the Kutztown campus from GeoEye-1′s first image. (1.26 MB)

Tags: Bing, Google