Bing launch

BBC Learning English
Words in the News
3rd June 2009
Bing launch

Words in the News © British Broadcasting Corporation 2009
Page 1 of 2
bbclearningenglish.com

Bing - that's the name of Microsoft's new search engine being launched in a major ad
campaign today. The company hopes what it's calling a "decision engine" will rival
competitors like Yahoo and Google. Imtiaz Tyab reports:

Microsoft has had a search engine for many years. It's gone through a number of
incarnations but the problem was relatively few people ever used it. The world's largest
software developer wants to change that with the launch of Bing. Described as a "decision
engine", Bing promises to make shopping, booking a flight or searching for a restaurant
online easier and faster than other sites.

But some experts are asking why people would stop using Google, one of the world's most
used search engines, and start using Bing? Microsoft says it's because 40% of search queries
on their competitor's site goes unanswered - something they can improve on. And while it
remains to be seen how excited users will be about Bing, many advertisers already are.

Bing is stylish. Some of its features, like previewing videos without leaving the site, surpass
what is offered by Google. Microsoft is taking a major financial risk with Bing. It's spent
$100m on the advertising campaign alone.

Imtiaz Tyab, BBC


Words in the news © British Broadcasting Corporation 2009
Page 2 of 2
bbclearningenglish.com

Vocabulary and definitions

gone through a number of
incarnations
changed many times to look and feel different than before
relatively here, compared to other internet search engines
queries here, a query is a word or word combination you type into
a search engine to find internet pages containing it
their competitor a company (here, Google) whose aim is to be more
successful than another company (here, Microsoft) that is
in the same business
goes unanswered here, cannot find relevant internet pages
improve on be better at
remains to be seen is not known yet (a cliché)
advertisers people or companies whose job it is to promote and
encourage the use of something
surpass here, are better, faster and more user-friendly than

More on this story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8070790.stm
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/technology/2009/05/microsofts_bada_bing.html

Read and listen to the story and the vocabulary online:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/language/wordsinthenews/2009/06/090603_witn_bing.shtml