Search engines are the main way most people interact with the internet nowadays. The majority of website hits start with a search engine, and being at the top of the search engine results pages (SERPs) is the number one goal of most SEO professionals. 

The global search market is enormous, and search engine usage only rises over time.

Since the release of the first search engine, a tool named Archie, in 1990, a large number of other search engines have been established throughout the world by companies including Yandex, Baidu, and even Amazon. 

Despite having a similar appearance and feel, there is no doubt that Google and Bing are the world’s two most popular, frequently used, and generally recommended search engines.

Google is clearly the dominant player in this field because it has been extensively adopted and is the search engine that almost everyone uses by default. 

Nonetheless, Bing is a formidable rival that has made major attempts to catch up to Google, the world’s most successful search service. 

Despite its efforts, Microsoft Bing still has a long way to go before it can compete with Google’s search traffic, algorithms, and database. It has its own advantages, however, which make the question of Google vs Bing a bit more complicated than you might expect.

We must be aware of these search engines and how they perform; if you are a marketer, it should be obvious that things linked to these engines work in tandem with paid advertising. 

Understanding the differences between Microsoft Bing and Google can allow you to enhance the growth and exposure of your efforts, allowing them to reach a wider audience. 

Even though Google search is an absolute giant, millions of people use Bing every day, so you should make sure you do not overlook either of the two search engines.

Let’s compare Google vs Bing and see what the differences are between these two search engine giants. 

It is not going to be as simple as one of them is clearly better than the other: both Bing and Google have their own strengths and weaknesses, and understanding the difference is much more important than being able to say that one of them is somehow “the best.” 

Read on below for our full Bing vs Google comparison!

The History of Google

Google is the most widely used search engine on the planet. Larry Page and Sergey Brin launched Google all the way back in 1998. They both launched the firm together while studying for their Ph.D. at Stanford University in California.

Over the years, Larry Page and Sergey Brin’s little business has expanded via several acquisitions, collaborations, and technological advances to grow into an absolute titan. 

Google Docs, Google Sheets, Slides, and Gmail are examples of work and productivity services operated by Google, all of which have served to expand the company significantly. 

There are also various systems for scheduling and time management, such as Google Calendar and Google Drive, which is one of the leading cloud storage services.

In addition to these productivity, work, and scheduling systems, there are several Google services related to communication, transportation (Google Maps), language translation, video sharing (including YouTube!), photo editing, and other major fields. 

Google is now directing the development of the Android operating system for mobile devices, the popular Google Chrome web browser, and Chrome OS, a Chrome-based operating system.

Between 2010 and 2015, Google shifted its focus to hardware development. During the development of their next-generation gadgets, prominent electronics firms established partnerships with Google. 

In October 2016, Google announced many hardware devices, including the Google Home smart speaker, Google Wi-Fi wireless mesh router, and a number of virtual reality headsets, many of which were failures. 

Google also considered becoming an internet service provider, with examples including Google Fibre, Google Fi, and Google Station. In 2023, Google is the most frequented and popular website on the planet.

In the aftermath of the launch of controversial generative AI, Google recently unveiled Bard, an artificial intelligence chatbot that will compete with ChatGPT. 

The technology is still in its early stages, and thus far, it has mostly produced erroneous data that should not be relied upon. Generative AI reliance risks damaging the search results of Google, and their move in this direction should be viewed with caution.

The History of Microsoft Bing

Microsoft introduced Bing as its search engine in 2009, over 10 years after the launch of Google. Despite its small market share, Microsoft has continued to invest in and improve Bing, leveraging it to boost other products and increase its advertising business. 

MSN Search, powered by Inktomi, Looksmart, and AltaVista technology, launched the company’s search engine adventure more than 20 years ago. Microsoft first began using its own web crawler in 2005, and a year later, it developed its own picture search algorithm and advertising service.

Microsoft made various modifications throughout the years, including rebranding its search engine Bing, which formally replaced Live Search. In 2006, Microsoft abandoned third-party companies in favor of developing its own picture search algorithm, as well as switching to its own ad service known as the MSN ad center.

A year later, Microsoft made several changes that have had an influence on how it operates today, such as removing the Windows branding from its search engine and selecting new CEO Satya Nadella to manage the newly established Search and Ad platform group. 

Satya Nadella, who has been with Microsoft for more than 20 years and holds degrees in engineering, computer science, and business, was eventually chosen as the new CEO after a protracted search. He was selected because he understood Bing’s potential value to Microsoft’s overall mission. 

Over the years, a series of reorganizations, mergers, and disruptions led to the release of Microsoft’s new modern search engine, Bing. On June 3, 2009, Bing officially replaced the Windows Live Search Engine.

Bing began to earn a profit around eighteen months after Nadella took over as CEO. Bing is now fully integrated into several Microsoft products, including Windows 10, Windows 11, Xbox, Azure, Office 365, and Cortana voice search. 

Bing has also made strides in new AI, voice search, and machine learning. Just like with Google, this move towards AI has so far primarily made the search engine much less accurate for finding reliable information and should be viewed with caution.

Microsoft’s purchases of GitHub and LinkedIn have opened up new avenues for integrating the Bing search engine with these sites. One of Bing’s vector search algorithms, for example, is open-source and available on GitHub. 

GitHub is creating greater contacts with the developer and researcher communities through efforts such as making Bing’s vector search algorithms accessible as an open-source GitHub project, although the full benefits of this for search marketers are still unclear. It is certainly a promising step with a lot of potential for the SEO community, however.

Google vs Bing: Market Share

Although neither Google nor Microsoft divulges the actual number of queries or active users they serve each day, third-party data paints a clear picture of who is ahead. In general, Google handles nine out of every 10 searches made on the entire internet – that is, including both desktop and mobile searches from search engine users.

According to reports, as of February 2023, Google has an 84% market share in the desktop search engine field, with a 95% lead in the mobile market. Bing fights well in the PC area, with a roughly 9% market share, but it still does not manage to crack the one percent barrier on mobile. 

This is probably due to the default search engine options on different mobile operating systems. 

Google is the default search engine on the popular Android operating system, while the Bing search engine is only the default on Windows phones, which are used by far fewer people. 

While these figures may appear unimpressive, bear in mind that Bing receives over 12 billion queries every month in total. It may be a small percentage, but as an absolute number, it is not to be overlooked.

Google’s global market share ranges from 85 to 95%. Bing, on the other hand, is clearly the underdog despite the fact that it has been operating since 2009. 

Nonetheless, it has managed to capture about 10% of the desktop search engine market on its own, and its ads system rakes in around $18 billion per year. Furthermore, several other search engines, such as Yahoo and DuckDuckGo, rely on Bing’s results, making it significantly more powerful than the stats imply.

Bing, however, seems to have a bit of an advantage in certain locations, such as the United States, where it claims to have served more than 30% of total search results at one point. It is also utilized behind the scenes by Amazon’s Alexa and Apple’s Siri digital assistants. 

This makes it hard to tell which of the two search engines is actually doing the most work: just because Google has dominated the manual search results does not mean that Microsoft’s Bing search engine is not actually performing more searches behind the scenes, thanks to its open architecture.

Bing vs Google: Indexing and Crawling Comparison

Google has billions more pages and web pages indexed than Bing. Google can take advantage of this to find the most relevant results for a user’s search and give them a wider range of possible information. Crawlers like Googlebot are so intelligent and strong that they can index webpages quickly and precisely.

Despite having a smaller index than Google, Bing contains tens of millions of web pages and pages. Bing’s crawlers, like Google’s, are cutting-edge, but unlike Google, Bing favors quality above quantity. Bing promotes high-quality website crawling and indexing with a focus on authoritative and relevant information. 

This means that as Google gets increasingly flooded with perfectly optimized SEO material with little thought for human Google users and content quality, Bing actually becomes a more attractive and useful prospect for most search users.

Both Google and Bing have powerful crawling and indexing capabilities, but they use different methods to manage these tools. 

The Google index is larger and weighted more strongly toward scanning and indexing as many websites and pages as possible, whereas the Bing index is smaller and weighted more heavily toward crawling and indexing high-quality and relevant material. 

Users looking for a greater range of information may choose Google, while those looking for high-quality, authoritative information may prefer Bing. Which platform is suitable for you is determined by your specific demands and expectations.

When it comes to extra features, neither is much better than the other, with both Microsoft Bing and Google using their power to provide similar services. 

Google Maps and Bing Maps are very similar, and Bing gives much the same results as Google searches on their additional features like Maps and other extras.

Google vs Bing: Quality of Search Engine Results

It is tough to judge the quality of results between Microsoft Bing and Google, considering the billions of search phrases available. In general, Google and Bing will both suit the demands of the ordinary user. You may use both search engines to find text, videos, photographs, news, and even major shopping websites.

Both search engines produce relatively accurate results in the majority of circumstances. As you would expect from a search engine, both provide a list of links to relevant web pages. In truth, the results pages do not appear all that different from one another. 

Microsoft Bing and Google will sometimes grab text samples from reputable sites such as Wikipedia to post at the top of pages. 

Bing also includes features like the “snapshot” function, which provides a rapid summary of information about a certain topic or entity, and integration with Microsoft’s Satori knowledge system, which improves the precision and relevancy of Bing’s search results and search suggestions. 

Finally, Bing will frequently include a visually appealing infographic with the search results.

Featured Snippets and Summaries

The featured snippets are a bit of a problem. Google’s tend to come from sites that have managed to manipulate the algorithms particularly successfully, which tend to often be the more reliable sites anyway, thanks to Google’s EEAT system. 

However, due to Google’s search algorithm, the actual information displayed in the featured snippet often does not actually match your search query very well.

Bing’s featured snippets, on the other hand, are pulled from pages by AI and combined to form a brief explanatory paragraph. This AI is, frankly, a disaster. 

Often, snippets of text will be pulled out of context and presented as if they say something completely different from what the webpage is actually trying to say. AI search suggestions are generally unhelpful.

As part of this, if you ask a yes or no question, Microsoft Bing will frequently summarize content from numerous sources. Google will try to do the same thing, but its response will always include only one source. That does not make Microsoft Bing any better, though, since we have seen both search engines make major mistakes even while citing the right sources.

Whether it is Microsoft Bing or Google you are using, you should always click through to the websites and read the full context rather than relying on the featured snippets that both search engines display at the top of their first results pages.

Design and Aesthetics

Google’s user interface is straightforward, featuring a search bar at the top of the page where users may input their search terms. Google’s search algorithm is extremely sophisticated and effective, with a significant emphasis on relevancy and content quality. 

The search results are presented in a clear and ordered way, allowing users to quickly discover the information they want. 

Google also includes extra features like the Knowledge Graph, which displays relevant information integrated into the search results page, and Google Now, which gives users a selection of up-to-date and tailored information.

Bing’s search results are more aesthetically attractive, with bigger photos and videos, making it simpler for consumers to get the information they need. 

Microsoft Bing offers a more aesthetically appealing layout, with a homepage that contains daily changing graphics and a menu that allows users to browse other search result categories. 

Bing’s search algorithm emphasizes relevancy as well, but it also considers the context of the search, as well as the user’s location and past search history.

Extra features such as voice search, Google Maps, Bing Maps, and social media integration are very similar between the two. Many people use Google by default, but really it is not that different an experience to use Bing.

Image Search Engines: Google vs Bing

Both search engines offer handy image search functions, but with some key differences that are worth being aware of. Microsoft and Google’s respective search engines display very similar image results, but on a design level, Microsoft Bing might just have the edge here.

Google’s image search is innovative and effective, with an easy interface that assists users in quickly finding the photos they want. Google’s image search results are well-organized and simple to use, with descriptions that are succinct and to the point. 

Google offers various more image-related search options, such as the ability to browse for comparable pictures and narrow your results by size, color, and file type.

Bing’s photo search has a simple design and an easy-to-use interface that emphasizes the visual presentation of search results. Photos in Bing’s image search results take up more real estate on the screen, allowing users to quickly discover the specific photos they want. 

Bing features options such as limiting results by license type and focusing your picture search on a specific item or topic in addition to regular image search capability.

Bing’s image search results are more aesthetically oriented, with larger and more visually appealing pictures, but Google’s are cleaner and more organized, with more search options. Each user’s choice between the two platforms will be guided by their specific tastes and needs.

Microsoft Bing visual search may have an advantage over Google in picture search by giving higher-quality photos and more information. Google offers more photos for viewing than Microsoft Bing. Bing, on the other hand, gives more precise information about the picture visitors are looking for.

It is worth noting that Google has recently announced plans to incorporate AI image generation into Google Image Search. 

This seems like a fundamental misunderstanding of the purpose of image search engines, which are primarily used to find images of specific real things or locations, largely for reference purposes. 

AI image generation incorporated into Google may muddy the waters and make Google far less useful as a reference tool. It is worth keeping an eye on this to see how it develops, as it is currently too early to know how much of an issue this new development will cause.

Bing vs Google Video Search Results

While both search engines offer video search functions, Google and Bing have some key differences when it comes to video search, which is one of the Bing vs Google areas where Microsoft’s search engine might actually come out on top of Google’s. Microsoft Bing’s visual search design is particularly helpful for images, videos, and related searches.

Because Google owns YouTube, video search results on Google will just direct you to YouTube links, sending you out to a separate web page. That is good for getting you access to a huge number of videos through Google search, but the separate web page system is a little irritating. 

Bing, unlike Google, incorporates video search results into the main search page, allowing you to play them directly from the search page.

The key differences here are really down to the existence of YouTube. While Bing offers a very visual search page, aiming to keep you using the Bing system as much as possible without clicking elsewhere, Google would prefer its users to visit a YouTube page in order to engage with Google ads on the YouTube website.

That being said, YouTube has dominated search engines results for video uploads for such a long time that most search users are much more likely to just go straight to the YouTube website rather than bother with a general searching engine. 

The same goes for sharing videos on social media: YouTube is used by so many people that other options for video really struggle to get a foothold, no matter how good quality they are.

SEO Tools: Bing vs Google

SEO is a field driven by data, and that means that SEO professionals need their search engines to provide tools that let them access that data. Fortunately, both Google and Microsoft Bing have good keyword research tools that provide performance information.

One of Microsoft Bing’s unique feature sets is the ability to import data from Google Search Console. 

Another advantage that Microsoft Bing has over Google is that it delivers SEO Reports. These reports, according to Bing, provide common page-level recommendations based on SEO best practices to boost your results. 

The reports are created automatically every two weeks and include suggestions for things to work on or investigate. You can check in on these analytics every day to make sure you are working on the right areas of your SEO plan.

Because Microsoft Bing allows you to import data from Google Search Console, both Bing and Google have access to Google’s data, so it looks like it should be a win for Microsoft Bing, right? Not necessarily. 

One of the big things that really helps Google stand out from other search engines is that, as the market leader, third-party tools are primarily designed to interface with it. 

That means that there are an enormous number of analytics tools that work perfectly with Google but are not designed for other search engines. Not all of these tools Google interfaces with will work with Bing, but many of them will. It is best to check your favorite tools on a case-by-case basis.

Google vs Microsoft Bing: AI Chatbot Tools

Microsoft introduced Bing Chat in 2023, a conversational chatbot that makes searches appear more tailored and engaging. It is built on the same technology as ChatGPT, in which Microsoft has invested over 10 billion dollars.

When it comes to complicated queries, AI chatbots like Bing Chat look impressive and flashy. 

Planning a holiday or selecting a present for a loved one are two examples of things that are hard to find through the two search engines traditionally but much easier when fed into the chatbot, which is able to parse more information from your queries.

The distinction between ChatGPT and Bing Chat is that Microsoft’s chatbot can search the internet for live information. 

This makes it quite useful in practice since you can use it to identify different parts of a matching set of objects or evaluate different things from a certain perspective. A traditional search would need you to conduct several individual searches and conduct your own research.

Google does have a competitor to Bing Chat in its arsenal, in the form of its Bard AI chatbot, but you must access it independently from the Google search engine for the time being, while Bing Chat is integrated into Microsoft Bing search as standard. 

However, certain locations have access to a function that immediately adds AI-generated responses to search response pages. Google refers to this as Search Generative Experience. 

When compared to Microsoft Bing’s Chat, it performs admirably, but you must first activate it rather than it just being an integrated part of the system.

As with all AI chatbots, you need to independently verify all of the information they provide. Google vs Bing does not matter here: both Bing and Google are using the same systems here and need to be treated with the same caution. 

These systems are very good at making sentences that look like answers, but they are very bad at actually providing truthful information. 

Remember, the so-called “Generative AI” is much more like an advanced autocorrect than an actual artificial intelligence, and all it is doing is pulling together probable combinations of words. 

Use its output as a starting point for your own more focused searches, rather than as a central part of your search habits every day.

Bing’s Special Features

Bing has occasionally been a search industry pioneer, introducing the SEO disavow tool before Google. To give customers more context for their results, the business has developed “intelligent search” query results and news highlights. 

The Bing API has evolved into a valuable resource for search engine optimization professionals. The open access to Bing’s API has enabled the rise of privacy-focused APIs such as DuckDuckGo.

During a Microsoft Advertising Partner Summit, Microsoft executives revealed their major investment in advertising and the advertising department. Bing Ads’ early history was heavily influenced by its collaboration with Yahoo. 

However, advertisers frequently found it difficult to manage the relationship between the two firms. Bing ads have always been a bit more complex than Google AdWords, but the web of sites and companies that display their ads is large enough to rival the huge reach of Google ads. 

The two search engines both offer valuable advertising services, but in terms of which sites are served by them, there is pretty much no overlap between Google ads and Microsoft Bing ads.

Bing SEO

Despite having so many distinct SERP elements, most global search market share estimates place Bing in a distant second position, which means it does not receive much attention from SEO professionals. 

Although Bing provides significant data, its small market share makes generalizing the results of any studies to include Google users challenging. 

Despite having significant advantages over its competitors, Bing has been unable to win widespread consumer and marketer acceptance. To accomplish 100 months of uninterrupted development, much work and perseverance were required from the Microsoft Bing team.

Despite its numerous triumphs, including victories in multiple categories in blind testing, Bing has struggled to match customer expectations and garner widespread adoption. To accomplish 100 months of straight growth in customer usage, a great level of attention and commitment was required. 

Despite these obstacles, Bing has more than quadrupled its PC search market share since its inception and has grown to become Microsoft’s fifth-largest company, producing nearly $7 billion in advertising income. 

These achievements illustrate Bing’s dedication to the industry: Microsoft is putting an enormous amount of effort into trying to make Bing a serious competitor to Google Search.

Microsoft Bing should not be overlooked as part of your digital marketing strategy. Its ranking factors may not be as clear as Google’s ranking factors, but in general, it can be assumed that they both run on meta descriptions, valuable content, and most of the same standard ranking factors. 

Bing might not be the top search engine in the industry, but Bing searches still come in a high enough volume to be worth pursuing.

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