At first glance, Microsoft’s new search engine, Bing, doesn’t look all that different from Google. There’s a search bar across the top; a list of results down the middle of the page, flanked above and to the right by ads; and a smattering of categories to the left that will refine the listings. (41) ______.
Microsoft describes the change as a focus on being a "decision engine" vs. a search engine. Jon Tinter, general manager of strategic partnerships in Microsoft’s online audience business group, said the idea is to shift work from consumers to search engines, by answering more queries on the search results page, without having to click through to a result.
(42) ______. Want to know if a flight’s on time Search the airline and flight number, and it’ll answer that query atop the search results rather than pull up a list of sites and links that can tell you. Want to know where the UPS package you sent is The search results pull up a field for you to enter a tracking number, rather than making you click through to UPS. com to do that.
"Task and decision sessions are the focus of the new engine," said Mr. Tinter, as opposed to more simple navigational searches.
The company is focusing on specific improvements in the areas of travel, shopping and products, local and health—all highly commercial areas. It has fully integrated into the search engine Farecast, a recently acquired travel search engine that "predicts" the likelihood of flight prices going up or down. (43) ______.
The idea behind the changes is to get people to think differently about search, Mr. Tinter said.
"Search is a habit. When you talk to people you hear a lot of stated satisfaction, but they don’t behave like satisfied customers—and we think that’s where the opportunity is," he said, citing statistics: (44) ______.
But whether the changes look different enough to make consumers switch isn’t clear. Perhaps that’s why Microsoft is helping the service, which will be full deployed on June 3, with an $ 80 million to $100 million campaign from JWT (智威汤逊广告公司).
(45) ______.
Finding words like that these days "is getting harder and harder," said Paola Norambuena, senior director-head of verbal identity at Interbrand. She added that linguistically Bing had a lot of applications. "It’s the sound of found. "
[A] Branding shop Interbrand helped conceive the name Bing, which was chosen because it was memorable, easy to spell around the world and could be used as a verb, as Microsoft hopes to convert people from "Google it" to "Bing it. "
[B] But for certain types of queries, the site trumps its competitors—specifically market leader Google.
[C] Microsoft says that if its search engine brings more relevant results than Google or Yahoo!, then people will eventually migrate to the "best" product. That may not be true. Google has become a habit for more than two-thirds Of the people who use search engines in the U. S.
[D] For example, search for "weather," and Bing will use your IP address to figure out your location and display a forecast at the top of the results.
[E] Two-thirds of people say they’re satisfied with search, but 15% of the time, search queries go abandoned without answer. "I can’t think of another industry where you’d have 15% abandonment and two-thirds of customers saying they’re satisfied. "
[F] Creating a new search engine is a tremendous risk at this stage because it’s remarkably expensive to build and market one that has any chance in the mass market.
[G] And it has made improvements to its maps functions, Jetting users omit the navigational minutiae (细节) of local streets that often clutter other services’ directions.
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