CIS 120 Internet Topic: Google and Bing

For my computer information systems class, I discussed the similarities and differences between the two most popular search engines, Google and Bing. I felt strongly about this topic because I believe Google is the innovator of search, while other search companies attempt to duplicate Google's success. The search giant isn't without its flaws, they show as I delve a bit deeper into the subject.

 Google and Bing are the two most used search engines, with Google far in the lead, in terms of traffic. These two search engines perform the same basic function: they provide results to the user who enters a query. However, Google and Bing serve different results based on that search term.   

The code that interprets the search term is a highly sophisticated technology. Google uses algorithms that place importance on link popularity, diversity, and even back links to pages that have relevant content. The tags in HTML code also serve as a factor. Bing uses a different approach to the relevance of a search query. For example, Bing does not pay attention to HTML code such as H1 tags and meta descriptions, while Google does. Another important factor in providing results is the financial backers of both companies. Obviously, their products and services appear before a competitors would.

Google and Bing provide advertisements which is the major source of income in the search business. The code that tells which ad to display to a client is another highly advanced piece of technology. Have you ever searched something, gone back and searched for something else, and something in the ad pops up that is just what you were looking for? Google and Bing both remember a profile based on your search input. Google's technology is far more advanced than Bings in how it uses this information to serve advertisements.   

I prefer Google over Bing because it has been around longer, it provides accurate results, and it is the original. Bing is a poor imitation of Google to invade the 'market share' in my opinion. Bing was the response to Google's success.

Part of our discussion was to provide alternative search engines. I do not use these sites because I find Google adequate. I had to mention them just for the sake of critical inquiry.

Because of the tracking and profiling of personal information, many people have become suspicious about how these companies are using it. DuckDuckgo.com was a response to this. It does not log any personally identifiable information, nor cookies, and it discards your information when you leave the site. Both Google and Bing use all of these devices to maintain an identity based on each user. Other search engines similar to DuckDuckgo include Startpage, Ixquick, and Blekko. Many search alternatives feature privacy, yet their results might be lacking compared to Google or Bing. Another search engine that I've personally known for a long time is dogpile.com. I mentioned this search engine because before Google, searches yielded paltry results. Back then dogpile.com was very useful, along with similar websites, because they combined the requests of many search engines to provide a large amount of results.