So in case you missed all the fanfare Microsoft launched a new search engine Bling.com. Their old one - live.com - redirects to bing.com

So what does this mean for all the small & medium sized businesses especilly when it comes to local search? Well it looks like Microsoft are taking a leaf out of Googles book and have created something similar to the Google 10-pack. Here is a query I ran today for "Web Design 07726" - I am happy to report the Jem Web Design shows up as the #1 listing

So Microsoft seem tbe intent on keeping results relevent and local - which is great given the huge numbers of people who research local services and products BEFORE they buy. In fact MS is really trying to fill a void here - it is trying to helpw ith the decision making process - whether that is finding a great restaurant or buying an airline ticket.

For example when I looked for "Pizza 07726" it presented 8 choices and when I selected one of those I got a nice consolidated page of all the information I am interested in eg reviews, directions, maps as well as specific web mentions (way to go Luigi's Pizza for owning the #1 spot!)

It seems very obvious that Bing is not trying to compete head to head with Google - instead they seem to be focusing on the lucrative areas where advertisers are spending dollars. That's around shopping, travel, local and health - in fact helping with consumers making decisions. It doesn't matter that they don't have 70% of the search engine crowd like Google does - they are targeting the users who advertisers are willing to pay good money for. So they are going after the cream of search engine users not the masses - this is a pretty smart move in my opinion and one that we ill be following VERY closely.

It is still early days and we will see how Bing grows and matures - but the early signs are posative. I'm not sure Google are trembling but you can be sure they are taking notice.

Whatever the outcome, history has proven that companies that take the time and effort WILL rank highly - are you taking the time and effort to ensure you are the leader in your field or are you watching money go to your competitors? For a free consultation call us at (888) 399-2417