Time to get your BING on - Microsoft have finally released their latest search project ... www.bing.com . After a few false starts (OK so we know somebody else is rather well known for search) and a few names (remember Kumo anyone) Steve Ballmer announced the release of BING search late last week.
Too early to call the winner - or understand it's usefulness - but 2 things are clear
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Microsoft would dearly love some more of the search engine market share pie. Read advertising $$$.
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Google and others have a lot of eyeballs glued to their existing products - and moving them across to the dark/light side (however you want to look at it) is not an insignificant challenge.
Some stage 1 economics ideas reverberate -
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First mover advantage - whoever is first into a market and develops the majority market share has an almost unassailable lead and your efforts are best to focus on the new markets. (Read Microsoft's offical press release to see how they are pitching BING as a new market product - "Decision Engine" not "Search Engine")
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Monopolies vs Oligopolies and Pure market systems - the big guys will go to great lengths (read - spend a small mountain of $$$) to try and wrestle their way into markets - no matter the vast sums of money that can be wasted in the process without much progress.
It reminds me of our local chocolate war here in NZ -
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Nestle owns white chocloate - or Milky bar
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Cadbury tries once every couple of years to develop some cred in the white chocolate space and spends a great deal in the process.
So far their efforts haven't disrupted the market (for white chocolate or search technology) - but it doesn't mean they won't stop trying. Who's got the most money to burn ?
Check it out - www.bing.com
posted @ Tuesday, June 02, 2009 12:10 PM