Microsoft unveils new search engine Bing

After months of speculation, Microsoft has revealed the name of its new search engine: Bing.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer last night unveiled the name and the full functionality of the engine it hopes will turn the tide in its battle with incumbent search giant Google.

The Australian version was also launched this morning in Sydney by ninemsn, although both global and local versions of the new search engine will not be available for users until next week.

Speaking at a technology conference in San Diego, Mr Ballmer said the company was determined to "do better".

"There are times in our history where we've felt a little bit like Rocky," he said.

"It takes persistence in this stuff — you don't always get things right."

Bing, whose name has been carefully designed to become a verb, is being styled as a search engine which provides good results first time.

It is also breaking the tradition of plain search engine interfaces.

While the Bing home page is not text-heavy, it sports a colourful background picture and the results page has more elements than its text-based rival Google.

The image will change every day to suit world events and is designed to take no longer to load than a blank background.

Bing will also feature interactive "hot spots" around the photograph which will provide information on its subject matter.

These "hot spots" will not be used for advertising, the company says.

Microsoft, which is a 50 percent owner of ninemsn, says it has optimised the pictures so that the pages load instantly.

But Bing is not only about superficial change, according to the company.

Microsoft data shows that 75 percent of all search queries do not provide a satisfactory result for the user straight away.

Instead users have to refine their searches, or go to the wrong sites and quickly backtrack, or give up the whole thing in frustration.

Bing aims to fix this by presenting users with relevant popular queries alongside the normal result links, and by creating "instant answer" sections which provide quick facts.

For example, a search for "Oscars" will bring a list of facts, including best picture for this year's awards, above the normal search links.

Other features include the "best match" function, which will deliver the user just one result for popular searches such as "Facebook", making the page less cluttered.

Video searches will now offer short previews with sound when the user runs their mouse over a search result, another innovation designed to make the process simpler.

Ninemsn Director of MSN Products Alex Parsons said the huge and rapidly expanding search market was due for a change.

"The internet is a very different environment compared to when search engines started gaining popularity almost a decade ago," Mr Parsons said at this morning's Australian launch in Sydney.

"Ironically, we've seen very little evolution in the way search engines works and display results to align themselves with this change."

Ninemsn CEO Joe Pollard said she was confident that Bing would eat away at Google's dominant 90 percent share of the search market.

"This is fundamentally a new product, a different product and an innovative product and I think that Bing ... is where the competition truly begins," Ms Pollard said.