Over the past week or so, there have been a rash of television commercials advertising Microsoft’s new Bing search engine. They’re annoying, pointless, and frankly….make me want to google Bing to see what it actually is.
I went to Bing for the first time today. Here’s what I discovered:
It’s prettier than Google. — But I prefer the clean non cluttered interface. The page takes time to load. Not a good first impression for a search engine.
You can turn off your “Search History” — But I don’t want my search history tracked to begin with.
The front page has cool little factoid mouseovers regarding the frontpage picture — but why do I care? Something cool on the web is really only cool once..then it’s annoying, kind of like those dancing hamsters.
If Bing is being touted as a “Decision Engine” then shouldn’t its algorithms point to things that would help a person make a decision about what hotel to stay at for example?
Bing has a link to get local options for your search — But Google has those same results on the first search page, usually about #3 or 4 on the list.
To be fair, I do like the popup of an extended page excerpt on the search results if you mouseover the short blurb. And I can see some advantages to the way the links on the side are organized, but it still means you have to click on the link to find what you want.
If Microsoft wants to make a “Decision Engine” then why not have some kind of decision tree? At first glance, there’s nothing really spectacular about Bing.
Bing got no bling. At least none that is good enough to make me stop using Google.
I don’t even think I’ll bookmark it.
Looks to me like Bing is just another search engine. It’s
From CNN:
Republican Whip Eric Cantor charged that the administration’s focus on PAYGO “seems more driven by polling and PR strategy than a serious commitment to fiscal discipline.”
Cantor’s statement included a “fiscal timeline” highlighting government spending initiatives this year. The timeline entry for June 8 points to polls showing dissatisfaction with the administration on spending and the deficit. The entry for June 9 shows the president holding a PAYGO summit. Full Article
Hmmm…Imagine that. A President who actually listens to the opinions of the people that he works for. If the GOP would do the same, then maybe their party wouldn’t be on the verge of near total collapse. The GOP is becoming a fringe group, not a major political party.
Maybe the stimulus was a good idea, and maybe it wasn’t. But it seems to be working, slowly but surely. The market is climbing back up. Last I checked, the Dow was creeping towards 9000. (It’s at about 8850 right now). Two months ago it was closer to 7000. I don’t recall if it dipped below 7000 or not.
8800 is not 14500, but it’s a start. the 13000-14000 was overvalued anyway. That’s the kind of thing that got us in this mess.
The massive spending done by the administration and Congress was a necessary step to getting this country back on its feet. Our economy was drowning. It’s still just treading water, but that’s better than the alternative. It was a lifeline.
If your child is seriously sick or injured, you don’t worry about how much it’s going to cost. You take them to the ER, and deal with the bill later…insurance or not. (we won’t go there in this post) Does anyone point fingers at the parent for taking a sick child to the ER if they need immediate attention? Do they say “you could have given them a tylenol for their broken leg and wrapped it in duct tape…it would have been cheaper”? No. In fact the parent would be criticized for not doing so, and could possibly be charged with neglect.
The President got us to the ER. Now it’s time to deal with the bill. The way the President is proposing to deal with it sounds responsible, and doable. There will be hard choices to make, and I think that’s why many in Congress don’t want to do this.
If the GOP or some Democrats don’t agree with it. Fine. Come up with a better solution. But it had better be something the American people can live with, and it better work…One too many trips to the ER can put you in the morgue.
Yesterday, President Obama announced plans for a high speed rail system in the United States to further improve our national infrastructure and to create more jobs.
That’s what I call real vision and leadership. And some people wonder why I think he’s a good President.
The beginning of a blog is always an interesting thing. Often a person says hello, talks about what their interests are and why they are blogging.
Kind of like the first day of class. Nothing is really expected of you in most cases. The professor hands out the syllabus, talks to the students about expectations and MAYBE gives an assignment.
Well readers, there’s no assignment on this first blog entry, and I have naught for a syllabus. So there’s nothing much to say at this point.
