Take the Bing It On Challenge!

Since we launched Bing we’ve been hard at work to deliver relevant, useful search results that help you go from searching to doing. Awhile ago, we began to notice an interesting trend in our internal testing – for the first time our testing showed that Bing’s web search results were better than Google’s. We continued testing our results in several different ways as part of our regular work to improve our quality, and along the way an interesting pattern emerged – Bing was regularly beating Google in web search results quality. Click here if you’d like to learn more about how we made Bing better.

So, we asked an independent research company to do a statistically significant similar challenge test and our findings were confirmed – people preferred Bing web search results nearly 2:1 over Google in blind comparison tests.* Since relevancy of search results is the #1 driver of search engine preference, the time is right for a wake-up call for searchers – better web search results are available at Bing.com. You can find out more about this independent research here.

Today, we’re asking people to click and choose which web search results they prefer via a fun, non-scientific blind comparison test called Bing It On. Our mission is to show people it’s time to break the “Google habit” and that Bing has reached a quality level that will make it easy to switch. You can try it for yourself at BingItOn.com.

How Does It Work?

The Bing It On Challenge is an online tool that makes it easy for you to compare Bing and Google’s web search results. The challenge is simple – within the tool you search for five search queries of your choice and compare unbranded web search results from Bing and Google side-by-side. For each search result, you choose a winner, or declare it a “draw”. After you complete your five search queries and vote for each one, we show you the final score. You can then share the Bing It On Challenge with others via Facebook, Twitter, or Google+.

The Campaign

To get the word out, we’re launching a nationwide campaign to encourage searchers to give Bing a chance. You’ll see a new TV ad tomorrow during the MTV Video Music Awards. The ads will appear on TV and online over the coming months. To create the new ads, we filmed people in San Francisco taking the Bing It On Challenge. Our man-on-the-street interviews and in-person challenges reinforced the independent research yet again. No one seemed more surprised by the outcome than the people taking the Challenge – but seeing is believing. Check out how it went down here.

You’ll also see the Bing It On Challenge prominently featured in Microsoft Stores nationwide and via pop-up Bing It On Challenge stations over the coming months. You can follow along on the Bing Facebook page or at #bingiton.

Today we’re also launching the Bing It On sweepstakes, giving people a chance to win a big box of awesome Microsoft prizes, including a Surface, Windows 8, Xbox 360 with Kinect and Xbox Live, Windows Phone and more, simply by tweeting. The sweepstakes will run until October 18. Click here for more details on how to participate, as well as complete rules and regulations.

What’s Next?

After you take the Bing It On Challenge, we hope you will become a frequent searcher on Bing. It’s time to break the Google habit – you deserve more from your search engine. Not only are our web search results better than Google’s, we also offer a rich search offering that brings together great search results with friends who know about the topics you’re searching for. Our social search features allow you to search with advice and input from friends and experts, providing a new take on search. Now is the time to spend less time searching and more time doing. If you want the best web search results and a new, more useful way to search with your friends, try Bing today.

– Mike Nichols,Corporate Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer, Bing

*Based on a comparison of web search results pane only; excludes ads, Bing’s Snapshot and Social Search panes and Google’s Knowledge Graph. Learn more at bingiton.com.