Bing

I've bookmarked Bing.

Support the small guy. That's my mantra. (A US 12% market share is small - even if the owner isn't)

I am still working through some of the search functionality. I want to determine if the owner has used any of the really valuable search IP it has acquired in the past 12 months: namely PowerSet and FAST. Both acquisitions have in my view accelerated Microsoft's move to the smart end of contextual and enterprise search. And at the fraction of the cost of the expected Yahoo acquisition.

Copying Google is not the way forward. Improving on the search and user experience is. PowerSet and FAST both provide that opportunity. I am just trying to figure out what they might have added to Bing.

[Updated: An interesting related story I read on Reuters following this posting. It's all about timing, they say!]

'Microsoft Corp is willing to invest up to 10 percent of its operating income in its Internet search business for up to five years', Chief Executive Steve Ballmer said on Thursday, as its "Bing" search engine starts to gain ground with Web surfers.

Bing -- part of Microsoft's perennially money-losing online services unit -- has been winning market share from rivals, according to industry data released this week, but still trails market leader Google by a long way.

"Our shareholders, I told them we were willing to spend 5 to 10 percent of operating income for up to five years in this business, and we feel like we can get an economic return," Ballmer told a business lunch in Chicago, without elaborating on the timeframe.'

Now that's serious money.