Logo: Microsoft's new Bing search engine

The Bing – Yahoo search deal I think is a good one for both searchers and also advertisers.  I went from pooh-poohing Bing to rather likeing it, and so I think it represents an improvement for users doing searches from yahoo properties. Bing is crisp and clean, has some cool features like real-time search, and mostly has similar results – at least for the first few pages of SERPs. So, overall, good for the consumer.

For the PPC advertiser, I think it’s also a good thing inasmuch as currently, advertisers need to deal with 2 very-poor interfaces to create and manage paid search accounts to get to MSN and Yahoo search ad inventory. Going forward, advertisers need only deal with 1 poor interface – adCenter – to get at all the Yahoo and Bing inventory.  Whether the advertiser is running large or small search programs, this will result in improved ease-of-use.  Some might argue that adCenter is an even worse interface than that of yahoo, but overall I think they are both quite bad, and I do expect adCenter’s interface to improve over time (how about getting the ability to report revenues, for example?). I also think adCenter Desktop will get better.

In terms of Google’s competitive position, I just cannot see this deal hurting Google. Google is too good at what they do – they are used to being proactive and improving search for users and for advertisers.  They have a deep, deep understanding of not only search but all things online IMO.  So, I just cannot see the new Bing as potentially hurting Google by taking additional share from Google over and above what they have when combined with Yahoo searches. Agreed? Comments?