First Look at Microsoft’s Bing

Bing is here a few days earlier than planned, so we decided to go check it out. While we don't think it will gain any ground on Google any time soon, especially after that embarrassing mishap the day of the Bing announcement, there are a few cool features we thought you should know about. Thoughts and impressions after the jump.

Ok, so it's technically not live live, just a preview, but you can access the page and play around with it. While we appreciate Google's minimalist approach to their home page, we kind of like the little twist Microsoft put on Bing. On the home page - in an almost blatant advertisement of Bing maps, video and all the other features on Bing - Microsoft has a gorgeous picture of somewhere in the world with links to go find out more about it. Today's picture is of somewhere in Turkey, but it looks like Microsoft will be changing it daily and you can view old images after installing Silverlight.

Near the bottom of the page, you can access quick links to information about the homepage image and popular stories right at the moment, like Project Natal. Bing had a lot of links, but the top spots weren't filled by the normal big names we're used to seeing. Kind of refreshing, actually. Other than that, Bing seems intuitive and simple to use. As far as redefining the way I search ... this preview version is enough to get me interested at the very least.

Our Bing review complete with test drive. Did Bing make the grade?

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