If you go to bing.com and type in “Google” or type Google into the address bar of a browser which has Bing set to the default search engine, you’ll come up to a results page with a variety of Google properties listed, including Google.com. That is what everyone would expect, of course, however that is not all you’ll see. A recent change has Bing placing a black box right next to the search box that says, “Will Bing Beat Google?” in large lettering, followed by “In blind tests, people preferred Bing to Google for the web’s top searches. See for yourself.” Clicking the ‘Go Now’ button will bring you to the bingiton.com page.
This is just the latest move by Bing to try to target loyal Google users, and this might be the smartest move yet. Obviously this costs Bing nothing, since they are just adding it to their own SERPs, so there is no real downside to adding the box. In addition, a large number of people likely type ‘Google’ into the address bar, without the .com, causing them to do a search. With Bing being the default search engine on so many browsers, this undoubtedly leads thousands of people to get to a landing page which will display this message.
If they can get people to give Bing a try, they will undoubtedly lead some of them to become loyal searchers, which is the main goal of this ongoing campaign. How effective this will be, we won’t know for at least a few months, but it is an excellent idea and a great example of how marketers need to think. Something so simple (and free) may end up being more effective than the television and digital advertising campaigns they have been running for over a year, at the cost of millions.
What do you think of this move by Bing? Is it an annoying popup which they should disable, or a smart marketing move? Please comment below.
