When we look back on 2023, will we remember it as a turning point in the online search industry? As ChatGPT exploded onto the scene, it heralded the arrival of something we have not seen in almost two decades of digital innovation: a potential threat to the dominance of traditional text-based search engines. ChatGPT ushered in a new era of AI-enabled prompt-based search – simultaneously delighting students with its ability to retrieve and structure information while provoking feelings of despair and ambivalence among writers and creatives worldwide.

But hold on… Before we bid farewell to the status quo, we need to acknowledge that the $260bn global search market (Statista, 2023) is still dominated by two players – Google and Bing – with the as-yet unmonetized consumer search capabilities of ChatGPT a looming threat on the horizon, rather than a present force to be reckoned with. So let us take stock of the experiences these two giants of search currently offer, to understand what they have got right.

Google Search and Microsoft’s Bing have been battling it out for supremacy since the latter went live in 2009. From the start, as the well-established global search engine of choice, Google was very much the Goliath to Bing’s David. It’s a pattern that has continued up to the present day, with Statista reporting that in 2023, Google holds an overwhelming lead in both market share of (92.63% vs. 2.79%) and revenue (279.8 billion U.S. dollars vs. 11.5 billion U.S. dollars as at Q4 2023). In this UX derby, we compare the user experience of Google and Bing across four key pillars:

• Interface design
• Search result relevance
• Mobile Experience
• Overall user satisfaction
• AI Implementation

Google

Interface design

Google’s interface design is renowned for its simplicity and minimalism, greeting users with a pristine white canvas. The clean layout features a prominent search bar, logo, and just a few core options. The uncluttered approach to this intuitive homepage is successful in supporting users to focus on their search queries. 

Search Result Relevance

The quality and relevance of search results are crucial to users’ satisfaction. Google has long been recognized for its powerful search algorithms, delivering accurate and comprehensive results. It provides a diverse range of content types, including web pages, images, videos, news articles, and more. Search results are often tailored to the user’s location, search history, and preferences, offering personalised and contextually relevant information.

Mobile Experience

It is clear that Google has invested heavily in optimising its search experience for mobile devices. Google’s voice search functionality – Google Assistant, provides a convenient hands-free experience and integrates well with other mobile applications and services, enhancing the overall mobile search experience.

Overall user satisfaction 

In terms of overall usability, Google is successful at delivering a fast and efficient search experience. Its robust infrastructure and advanced algorithms ensure fast search results and reliable performance, while the refined user interface and straightforward navigation also contribute to its usability. The presence of Google Ads, a well-established and widely used advertising tool, offering various ad formats and precise targeting options also plays a role in overall usability, often dependent on how relevant the results with the larger PPC spend budget are.

AI implementation 

Google unveiled on February 6th 2023, in response to ChatGPT, its very own experimental, conversational, AI chat service called “Bard”. It has been publicly available in 180 countries since May 10, 2023. It is currently only web-based and has been met with criticism of being a rushed release, as some false responses have been recorded. It is however able to pull up-to-date web information unlike the ChatGPT whose data source caps at 2021. It is faster than the competition and will likely improve in quality of response and usability significantly with the future AI updates recently announced by Google.

Bing

Interface design

Bing adopts a visually appealing, often scenic daily background image as its homepage, which can be a hit or a miss. It will undoubtedly prove engaging for some users but may also distract from the primary search functionality. Overall, however, it provides a straightforward and intuitive interface for users to enter their queries.

Search Result Relevance

Bing adopts a more visual approach here, displaying images and multimedia content prominently. All of this is presented in a crowded mashup including timeline infographics, quizzes, text links and more. It reads like a tabloid blog homepage in many ways. While the quality and relevance of this mashup of information is really good, it is again another hit-or-miss approach. While it definitely appeals to users seeking more visual-oriented experiences, others may find it less effective for finding simple and specific information or text-based content.

Mobile Experience

Bing’s integration with Microsoft’s ecosystem, including Windows devices is its USP, providing seamless connectivity across platforms. However, Google’s dominance in the mobile search space is evident, it has been at the forefront of mobile search innovation and leaves little room for competitors like Bing.

Overall user satisfaction 

Bing has made significant strides in improving its performance and usability. While it may not match Google’s speed consistently, Bing’s search engine has shown notable improvements over the years, with reduced latency and enhanced response times. Additionally, Bing’s intuitive interface and search suggestions also contribute to its overall usability, especially for users seeking to explore topics more generally. It really does provide a robust amount of information on the homepage, certainly more than on Google. Bing Ads, although less popular, provides similar advertising capabilities. However, it has less of an impact on usability since Google has a larger user base and advertisers often prioritise Google Ads for broader reach.

AI implementation 

In January 2023, Microsoft signed a $10 billion deal with OPEN AI, the developers of ChatGPT, to licence and incorporate a version of its language model GPT-4(with access to current real-time data) into a new AI-enabled search engine, called Bing Chat. It has been publicly available since May 4, 2023, and has been very well received. Like Google’s Bard, it’s an evolving product as Microsoft continues to release new features, however in its current form, Bing Chat is a more complete product than both ChatGPT and Google’s Bard, it not only offers users correct and relevant information with visual features but also gives users a number of options to help customise the responses as per requirements. If anything, its user interface is lagging behind the competition and could be more streamlined and intuitive.

Summary

In a head-to-head between Google vs. Bing, we needn’t say it but Google is the undeniable winner. Anything else would be highly surprising, given the significant imbalance in popularity still between the two search engines. It is however clear that both search engines have their unique quirks and characteristics. Whether you prefer the predictable and efficient experience of Google or the unpredictable and whimsical journey provided by Bing, one thing is certain: search engines have come a long way, and still have a long way to go, especially with the emergence of AI-enabled prompt-based search. Forbes reports that page visits on Bing spiked 15.8% between February (when Bing chat launched) and April while Google visits fell almost 1%. So who knows, the implementation of the ChatGPT in Bing Chat, might finally give Bing the edge to put up a strong fight and gain serious ground on Google. In any case, it is proof that the post-traditional text-based search era is truly upon us… Happy searching!