The default Live Search takes you to Bing, not sure why this was an issue for anyone unless they haven't updated from MSN search from years ago.
As for results, rather good for getting information.
For example, I heard about the missing flight this morning, and just typed in Air France, on the left were a Menu of options, and I clicked 'News'...
The main news story with a web slice was at the top of the page, with several breaking videos about the missing flight under it, that just hovering over played the video.
And a ton of additional breaking news links below that...
It was actually well presented, exactly what I was looking for, and gave me all the major news sites videos on the event that would have taken several searches and pages to get with Google or the old Live search.
The Web Slice was an added benefit in the returned results as I could just add it to my toolbar and monitor the news on the flight all day long as new information was reported from a drop down on the browser without even having to open a page or disrupt what I was working on to see the events unfold.
So for my first real world test and needing specific information, it worked brilliantly.
As I was doing tech work while chilling at home, I put in the model for a friends old laptop, and one of the Options on the left was Specifications. Clicking this brought back a full search from a lot of sites that all had 'specs' for the laptop starting from the MFR going all the way to reviews that detailed the laptops features and chipsets. This was quite smart that 'Specifications' would be recognized by the search engine, and offered as an option to the left and giving a full search of exactly what I wanted to see.
Again faster than the old Live and dare I say it more comprehensive and easier to get to than Google.
Google made a name replacing AltaVista as the 'catch' all web search, and it looks like Bing is going to take us from the 'simple and fast and complete' of Google to the next level of more intelligently organized results that are just as complete.
For advanced 'searchers' that know how to manipulate Google or any search engine to get what they want, there is even some benefit in just making things easier. However, for the average 'joe' that doesn't know the tricks or the advanced syntax, Bing will do well as it seems to figure out not only what you are searching for, but what it is and giving you options/categories to match the search on the left for more advanced results.
So far, Kudos with the intelligence behind it and the 'completeness' of results it is finding. In the past I would use Live for casual searching, but when I needed to find a part # or something more in depth about anything technical or even a car part, I would have to flip to Google to dig out the results. Today, Bing has delivered what I normally would have gone to Google to get, and add in the intelligence and options Bing gives, it could really hurt my time on Google, and that is saying something considering the amount and diversity of searching I do.
Again, for the average person, this is going to be chocolate cake for them, as they will get detailed results they have never seen before.
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