While the user interface of Bing is pretty nice, its search results leave a
lot to be desired. This includes the usage of its maps.
I've tried numerous searches for Chicago related information and
compared it to the google app results and the google maps on the
Iphone and Bing consistently is incomplete.
Here is just one example: Search for McHenry Harley Davidson on both
google and Bing. Only Google returns a hit. Bing: nada.
Maybe it will improve over time, but for me, the results are what matters.
I'm sticking with Google for the time being.
Two days after the release of Bing for the iPhone via Apple’s app store, Microsoft already is working on several fixes for it.
According to a December 17 post on the Bing Community blog, Microsoft is developing fixes and planning to extend support for its search app in three areas:
- No search results found outside the U.S. Bing is currently fully supported only on iPhones for the U.S. “At this time international availability has been suspended,” according to the blog post. Support and availability of Bing on the iPhone will be coming for other regions in “future versions” of Bing for the iPhone, Microsoft said, but isn’t offering a timetable. In the interim, Microsoft is advising international users to change their region format to ‘United States’ if they want to use Bing on their iPhones now.
- Voice search not working outside the U.S. Currently, using voice search anywhere but in the U.S. crashes Bing on the iPhone as a result of the region the phone is set to. Microsoft is working on a fix and plans to update the Bing iPhone app in the next few days with it. “People will get the update automatically – you won’t have to update or reinstall the app,” according to the Bing blog post. “If you are encountering this issue you can temporarily work around it by going to Settings > General > International and change your Region Format to ‘United States,’ the team is advising.
- No official support for first-generation iPod Touch. The Bing app currently supports second-generation iPod Touch devices, but Microsoft is in the midst of testing first=generation ones now and plans to announce support “as soon as testing is complete.”
If you want to see what Bing on the iPhone looks like, you can check out this screen shot gallery from my blogging colleague Ryan Naraine.
I’ve seen some tweets and heard from some Windows Mobile users that they consider Bing on the iPhone to be better than Bing on Windows Mobile phones. If you’re one of these users, have any specifics to share about what you’d like Microsoft to fix/add to the WinMo version to make it comparable to the iPhone app?
