Microsoft’s Search Engine also known as Live Search, Windows Live Search and MSN Search is now known as Bing! MSN stands for Microsoft Network.
MSN History
MSN’s search engine didn’t start as a search engine; it began life as Microsoft’s content viewer for Windows95. By 1999, it became a web portal with search features; in a similar style to Yahoo!
MSN Search held the market with about a 9% share, and was largely disregarded by searchers and search engine optimizations. In 2009, it was rebranded as Bing!, which seemed to strike a cord with searchers. Using a cleaner format and a “decision maker” branded image; Bing captured 30% of the searchers by 2011.
Bing! (MSN) and SEO
Microsoft’s answer to Google’s AdWords and AdSense is AdCenter. AdCenter uses a smaller footprint and claims it delivers higher quality, more relevant traffic.
Bing claims it focuses on faster, deeper searches. It aims to produce better results in searching, with fewer clicks and less work.
Bing uses a cleaner initial search page, with the ability to see a deeper view of the search result page with a click. It also offers a visual search result.
Bing, like Google and Yahoo says that original content is critical to SEO success on Bing. Relevant and attractive content that has meaning for the searcher is the first recommendation.
Domain age seems to be more important to Bing than Yahoo and Google.
Clear site architecture is an important factor for the Bing search engine. As with the other search engines, site maps and clear taxonomies are recommended to prevent broken links, missing pages or challenging navigation.
Good links from higher ranked pages can also improve the search engine page rank on Bing. Link building is important for all three search engines, and Bing seems to be no exception here. Bing, like the other search engines also recommends a diverse selection of link types.
Unlike the other search engines, Bing has been a Microsoft commercial product since inception. While some would argue it had identity issues in its early stages (MSN Search, Live Search, Windows Live Search, Bing). The introduction of Bing seems to have provided a major makeover for the search engine. Bing seems to have resonated with searchers, and initial results for Bing have been very strong.
Bing has miles to go before it runs up on Google’s heels, but has already left Yahoo in the dust and is still moving. Bing’s slick graphic images, clean look and uncluttered format have been well received by searchers.
Google has serious user lock and it will take a monumental effort to unseat it from market share.
