Google vs. Bing: An Interesting Comparison

Bing Is Not Google. This may be un/official full-form of BING. But contextually it is true. This is more pronounced after the improved Google's algorithm of identifying and highlighting synonyms. Google is introducing a bit of artificial intelligence to make itself as intelligent as at least a 7 year old child. Now it can understand that pictures & photos mean the same. It can also relate the popular abbreviations & highlight its full-form.

Of late it has started understanding the context of a search query. It’s a small but remarkable step towards making the web intelligent. A significant step leading to the innovative contextual search from today's keyword search. I must confess I am impressed by the quality of Google’s new synonym search. I did a comparative study of Bing & Google with the following search queries. Undoubtedly the Google search quality has set a new benchmark for Bing and others. Perhaps that’s the reason very few web users think of Google vs. Bing as there’s no such comparison, Google is far ahead of BING.

Google vs. Bing Based on same Search Queries:

1. s/w update bb

Any human being with an average intelligence can understand that the query s/w update bb means software updates Blackberry. Following was the search result of BING. Here out of 10 results displayed at first page only one was a bit relevant.

 Observe the following screen-shot to see how Google Synonym & contextual search is working together for the above query. 10 out of 10 results are relevant.

It has identified (highlighted) software for s/w.
It has identified Blackberry for BB
This is how Google synonyms is working. How the contextual search is working? BB can mean Blackberry but sometimes few fitness freaks use it for Bodybuilding as well. Google has intelligently analyzed the word BB with s/w to understand that by BB the user means Blackberry and not Bodybuilding.

Now type the following keywords:

2. BB fitness tip

Check it & you’ll find that the same word BB has been understood by Google as Bodybuilding and has been highlighted. Artificial intelligence at work!

 Few other search queries you may find interesting:

• Song words (Lyrics is highlighted as a synonym of words)
• Bank a/c (Account is highlighted)
• Cool a/c (Air conditioning is highlighted)
• Cloud s/w (Software is highlighted)
• PM India (Prime Minister is highlighted)

You may think it only identifies popular and traditional acronyms. You may be wrong as I was surprised to find the following informal word:-

LOL: Laughing Out Loud is highlighted.

Currently you may not find synonyms at work for every query. Moreover you may find some poor (quality) synonym as well. It depends on many factors.
Google's official blog put it as "Our systems analyze petabytes of web documents and historical search data to build an intricate understanding of what words can mean in different contexts."

Trivia: Updated on July 25 2014                 Try to search the following in Google: do a barrel roll tilt zerg rush recursion Google in 1998 Google backwards

Definitely BING and other search engines has miles to go before they can catch up with Google’s intelligent search algorithm. Share your experience of the latest synonym search.

Let us call it, The beginning of intelligent search. Perhaps not the end of Google vs. Bing. The innovation continues…