Bing has definitely deserved the buzz that it has received. For the average user, the high quality photos used on the doorway page will be interesting to watch. The photos add a sense of anticipation before going to Bing. Today, Japan Bing has a shot looking across a lake in central park, while the Bing US has a picture of the heart melting tropical island Moorea with various caption boxes one of which says “There’s no such things as too many pictures of tropical islands with white beaches.” From the caption box, you can click to an image search result for tropical islands with white beaches. Other caption boxes give information on the island, each with a link to a search result for the topic. Text search I would like you to meet visual suggestion.

While Apple has wowed the world with many if its interfaces, Bing’s doorway page starts with memorable imagery that starts the search exploration process with the user in a positive state of mind. Doing a search for “car parts”, the results page has a three column layout with a suggestion box and related searches in the left column, main search results in the middle column and sponsored ads in the right column. The big difference in the search results is that the search results now come in categories, which means there is more scrolling to view all the categories and their first three results. Some search commentators don’t like scrolling, but I prefer scrolling to clicking to different search results pages.

Both Google and Yahoo! have the search results left justified with other search suggestions presented at the top and or the bottom of search results. By using the three column presentation with related suggestions in the left navigation, Bing made a simple change that helps the user scan what is available. Also, having the search results in the middle column subtly enhances the visibility of the actual search results. Now that I look at the left hand justification of the search results Google and Yahoo!, they feel too close to the left edge of the page. Kind of says that Google and Yahoo! have spent too much time thinking about things other than search results.

Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, said “Search is still an unsolved problem.” He meant that finding content to exactly match search intent is still an unsolved problem, but the problem is as much a usability problem as much as it is an algorithm problem. Bing started in the right place, making life easier on the eyes. It’s kind of like finding the newspaper at your door in a hotel. Such a small gesture that leaves an impression that you and your search is important.