Even with an early release, Microsoft's new search engine, Bing, has been surprisingly bug-free (save those hovering mouse concerns and itchy IE 6 trigger) and is receiving rave reviews. Apple's Steve Wozniak is a fan. CNET's Rafe Needleman said, "the new engine won me over." And the Motley Fool folks have even gone on to declare Bing, "the first serious threat to Google's long-dominant search franchise."While I think it's a bit early to assess Bing's impact on Google, I can say that, as a user, I've been impressed by site's functionality. I am less than satisfied, however, with their nuclear-related search results. (Solipsism alert!) A Google search for "nuclear energy" has NEI in the first position - ahead of Wikipedia - on the search engine results page (SERP). On Bing? NEI is #2. And a search for "nuclear power" results in even more significant position changes: NEI is second on Google and in eighth place on Bing.
At least NEI still tops that other NEI on both Bing and Google. So...there's that.
Comments
Bing is the unmentioned search engine that is subject this morning's CNN story and a recent letter to Department of Homeland Security re: websites that are giving too much detail to their high resolution photos of nuclear power stations now publicly available free on the internet.
CNN 06/05/2009 > http://amfix.blogs.cnn.com/2009/06/05/critics-online-imagery-of-nuclear-plants-too-explicit/#more-3194 <
The interviewed analyst from Rand Corp agrees that this is way too much detail available for virtual reconnaissance in Wi-Fi cafes practically anywhere in the world.
You can surveil site security, pace off distances between target sets and set up 3D table top exercises for practice from remote and anonymous locations perhaps thousands of miles away.
Like the virtual images of the US Capitol, these "bird's eye" views need to be blurred out.
NSIR is supposedly relooking at it now. But we won't be surprised if NRC agrees with the guy interviewed from AmerGen's TMI.