Why is Bing worse than Google for finding Windows info?

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PUBLIC DEFENDER By Brian Livingston Microsoft’s Bing search engine has a small but growing market share — chipping away at Google’s 90% dominance worl
[See the full post at: Why is Bing worse than Google for finding Windows info?]

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abbodi86, Norio, oldfry, lmacri, ibe98765

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Agreed.  Bing is non-entity for me.  It’s been quite some time since I used it.  However, Bing sometimes has updated 3-D/streetview maps where Google hasn’t updated theirs, so worht a check if you run into old photos.

While on the subject of Microsoft, why does Edge have such an awful spellchecker?   Even relatively simple misspelled words throw it for a loop, producing nonsensical recommendations.

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ibe98765 wrote:

While on the subject of Microsoft, why does Edge have such an awful spellchecker? Even relatively simple misspelled words throw it for a loop, producing nonsensical recommendations.

I’d be interested in examples.

Windows 11 Pro version 22H2 build 22621.1194 + Microsoft 365/Edge

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I haven’t been saving them but when I get some I will post them for you.  Meanwhile, you can experiment yourself, if you are so motivated.

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Here’s one example from earlier today:

Or a stuid person (I misspelled word “stupid”)

Thi is what Edge spellchecker offered:

staid
squid
studio

How could it miss the obvious “stupid”?  This is just one example of many that I encounter regularly in Edge.

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Microfix

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Stupid is the first suggestion for me, using the recommended setting:

Windows 11 Pro version 22H2 build 22621.1194 + Microsoft 365/Edge

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Obviously your suggestions are different than mine. Why would that be? Win 11 vs. Win 10?

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@ibe98765 perhaps Edge does not compute ‘stupid’ or it may become self-aware /s

error…replace user

🙂

b wrote:

Stupid is the first suggestion for me,

shouldn’t put yourself down like that, smile god loves you!

WaaS = Windows as a Syphon...suckers!

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OpenStreetMap has very interesting details, and, of course, very little identification of places of business like Google or Bing Maps.  Railroad lines.  Power lines.  Hiking trails.  Very accurate depictions of highways.  Accurate placement of houses with street numbers.  Well, that’s in my neighborhood. Looks pretty good for other countries with which I am familiar.

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If you take 1B Windows PCs 90% running Google search and add 5B Android + iOS devices all running Google search, you realize that Bing isn’t worth mentioning at all in any article.

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My Android uses Bing, never Google.

Windows 11 Pro version 22H2 build 22621.1194 + Microsoft 365/Edge

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b wrote:

My Android uses Bing, never Google.

My Android uses Firefox and DuckDuckGo, never Google nor Bing.

Create a fresh drive image before making system changes/Windows updates, in case you need to start over!

We all have our own reasons for doing the things that we do. We don't all have to do the same things.

Computer Specs

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My sister uses Bing on her ipad.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady

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Well golly gee. That’s why I banned Bing 20 years ago.

In fact, I also tried to ban IE (including it’s current iteration called “Edge.”) Unfortunately, they keep showing up every time I follow a “more info” suggestion at MS.

 

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Bill Barnes wrote:

In fact, I also tried to ban IE (including it’s current iteration called “Edge.”) Unfortunately, they keep showing up every time I follow a “more info” suggestion at MS.

Internet Explorer and Edge were baked into your operating system and integrated with it. It’s unlikely that you will ever be able to completely remove either of them.

Carpe Diem {with backup and coffee}
offline▸ Win10Pro 2004.19041.572 x64 i3-3220 RAM8GB HDD Firefox83.0b3 WindowsDefender
offline▸ Acer TravelMate P215-52 RAM8GB Win11Pro 22H2.22621.674 x64 i5-10210U SSD Firefox106.0 MicrosoftDefender
online▸ Win11Pro 22H2.22621.1194 x64 i5-9400 RAM16GB HDD Firefox110.0b6 MicrosoftDefender

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Although I normally use StartPage (which streams Google results), there are times when it’s useful to not rely exclusively on that (or any search engine).  I’ve found that Bing sometimes turns up results that Google (or StartPage) doesn’t.

To me, one of the frustrating things about getting Microsoft information is what comes from answers.microsoft.com.  It seems that the majority of content there comes from Microsoft volunteers that simply recite textbook answers (including lots of text wasted on empathetic remarks), where at best, the response doesn’t answer the question (including ignoring specific details put in the original query), and too often, provide entirely irrelevant information.  Plus, questions that don’t get any response at all, or no response to follow-ups that complain about non-answer responses.

To this end, I like the Firefox extension uBlacklist which allows me to exclude all results for answers.microsoft.com from results streams.

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NaNoNyMouse, oldfry

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Still Anonymous wrote:

To me, one of the frustrating things about getting Microsoft information is what comes from answers.microsoft.com.  It seems that the majority of content there comes from Microsoft volunteers that simply recite textbook answers (including lots of text wasted on empathetic remarks), where at best, the response doesn’t answer the question (including ignoring specific details put in the original query), and too often, provide entirely irrelevant information.  Plus, questions that don’t get any response at all, or no response to follow-ups that complain about non-answer responses.

To this end, I like the Firefox extension uBlacklist which allows me to exclude all results for answers.microsoft.com from results streams.

Agreed. I’ve also excluded answers.microsoft.com for quite a few years from most searches about Microsoft issues (by using “site:microsoft.com –site:answers.microsoft.com) as the responses there are useless more often than not for the reasons you outline.

Windows 11 Pro version 22H2 build 22621.1194 + Microsoft 365/Edge

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In my occasional foray into Bing searches, I get lots of ads and references to Microsoft’s own and sometimes deficient problem-solving web pages.  Bing has such an inbred bias towards Microsoft itself that it is effectively useless for tech problem solving, which I do regularly.  Microsoft also needs to face up to the inadequacy of its own web sites’ content for problem solving for Windows and its other products.

I have often found a Google search to be more effective to find what I want on a website than the website’s own built-in search.

The usefulness of Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo or any other search engine depends on what you are looking for.

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Will Fastie, wavy, geekdom, Norio, oldfry, Still Anonymous

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Ben Myers wrote:

The usefulness of Google, Bing, DuckDuckGo or any other search engine depends on what you are looking for.

… and how you look for it. The search criteria matter greatly.

Carpe Diem {with backup and coffee}
offline▸ Win10Pro 2004.19041.572 x64 i3-3220 RAM8GB HDD Firefox83.0b3 WindowsDefender
offline▸ Acer TravelMate P215-52 RAM8GB Win11Pro 22H2.22621.674 x64 i5-10210U SSD Firefox106.0 MicrosoftDefender
online▸ Win11Pro 22H2.22621.1194 x64 i5-9400 RAM16GB HDD Firefox110.0b6 MicrosoftDefender

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To a point, I agree. One needs to have a good idea of what to search for.

Maybe it’s because I’ve gotten familiar with how Google search works?  Nope.  Too easy.  I put the search criteria into Google search and it finds what I want.  Or maybe I have to do a second search with different criteria?  And I rarely do any kind of sophisticated Google searches.  Just a bunch of words.  That’s about how difficult Google search is for me.

Bing? Maybe something useful after all the stinking ads.

 

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I’ve found if I ask the “right” question, the search reveals answers in the range. Sometimes the “right” question is nothing more than rearranging the order of my search terms.

Carpe Diem {with backup and coffee}
offline▸ Win10Pro 2004.19041.572 x64 i3-3220 RAM8GB HDD Firefox83.0b3 WindowsDefender
offline▸ Acer TravelMate P215-52 RAM8GB Win11Pro 22H2.22621.674 x64 i5-10210U SSD Firefox106.0 MicrosoftDefender
online▸ Win11Pro 22H2.22621.1194 x64 i5-9400 RAM16GB HDD Firefox110.0b6 MicrosoftDefender

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Susan Bradley wrote:

My sister uses Bing on her ipad.

That’s part of the miserable and neglectable 3% search market share.

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You can neglect me, but I’m not miserable:

12 Things that Bing Does Better than Google
(including privacy and anti-tracking measures)

Windows 11 Pro version 22H2 build 22621.1194 + Microsoft 365/Edge

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ibe98765

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use none of the above suggested ‘search engines’ and can still find what I need.
This article on private search engines may be of use to folks out there.

WaaS = Windows as a Syphon...suckers!

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Norio, Steve

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