Is Bing the Next Google or Will History Repeat Itself Again?

When I hear the word “Bing,” I immediately think of this classic scene in Groundhog Day:

Ned: Phil? Hey, Phil? Phil! Phil Connors? Phil Connors, I thought that was you!
Phil: Hi, how you doing? Thanks for watching.
[Starts to walk away]
Ned: Hey, hey! Now, don't you tell me you don't remember me because I sure as heckfire remember you.
Phil: Not a chance.
Ned: Ned... Ryerson. "Needlenose Ned"? "Ned the Head"? C'mon, buddy. Case Western High. Ned Ryerson: I did the whistling belly-button trick at the high school talent show? Bing! Ned Ryerson: got the shingles real bad senior year, almost didn't graduate? Bing, again. Ned Ryerson: I dated your sister Mary Pat a couple times until you told me not to anymore? Well?
Phil: Ned Ryerson?
Ned: Bing!
Phil: Bing.

Our collective enthusiasm for Microsoft’s upgraded search engine resembles more of Phil than the Ned side.  Microsoft is Ned Ryerson, finding some conceivable way for the rest of us to remember him now and for years to come.

Bing, the self-proclaimed “decision engine”, is prettier and in some cases better than Google. Microsoft gained two percentage points of search engine market share within five days of launch. In its second week of existence, Bing maintained its momentum and impressive numbers (for a direct competitor of Google, that is). But is the might of Microsoft just enough to convince some Googlers to switch over?

Like Kleenex, Xerox, or Band-Aid, Google is a “brandnomer” ingrained into the minds and hearts of consumers. “To Google it” has replaced “Search for it.” While I like Bing and its eCommerce friendly capabilities, Google is way too far ahead for Microsoft to pay catch up. Bing needs to carve up its own niche and position itself as the eCommerce search engine of choice (or the “illicit material of choice,” to put subtly).

What Bing has going for it, unlike the forgotten media darling Cuil, is a memorable (and even lovable) name. It is the Ned Ryerson of search engines—an underdog (ironically backed by the largest software company in the world) and almost always in danger of irrelevancy. Google is the arrogant and haughty Phil Connors slowly but surely improving itself (and gets the girl in the end).

Microsoft has a long ways to go. Bing could be a major success and a viable alternative to Google; or it could repeat the same story of other “Google Killers”: failure and disaster.

To “Bing it” or to “Google it,” that is the $100 billion question. In the end, it doesn’t really matter—because we’ll end up using both.