On June 2, 2009 Microsoft launched Bing as its latest re-branded search engine. Always skeptical of the latest Google killer, we ran an unscientific test of search results on Live.com (first image) before the switch and Bing.com (second image) afterward. Here’s what we found.

The search query we targeted was “Children’s Hospital.” In our initial test on Live Search (Microsoft’s former search brand), the engine returned Children’s Hospital Boston as the No. 1 listing, with eight “site links” below the URL and an option to “Show more results for childrenshospital.org.” The No. 2 position included three listings geared to my zip code. On the right-hand side was a listing of eight “Related searches.” Interestingly, there were no “Sponsored Results,” which are the pay-per-click listings and the method by which the engines make their money.

On June 2, we ran the same search on the Bing.com. Beyond cosmetic changes (the new wrapper and some elements positioned in different places) the actual results were subtly different.

In the first position on Bing were the local listings, which were in the second position before. A funny note: Initially, Bing (and Live, too, for that matter) kept trying to position me in Little Rock, Arkansas, so it showed me local results for that area. we had to go in and change our location each time to get Kansas City results to appear. Guess we need to log-in and update our info for Microsoft! (Side note: We really, really don’t know why the search engines insist on pushing their local listings on us when there have so many flaws in the results. And getting them changed is a bear … a topic for an upcoming post.)

After local results, the second listing on Bing is for Children’s Hospital Boston, which was the first overall listing on Live. The rest of the results seem to follow in the same order, so it doesn’t appear as if there is a major algorithm change. Related Searches are now on the left (they were on the right before) but again look to be the same listings in the same order. There is also a handy Search History group below the related searches entries.

Here’s a nice feature. As you mouse over a snipped from a site, a line with a circle in it appears next to that listing (the Hover feature). Mousing over that listing reveals an additional excerpt from the site, with site-link-type links as well. This gives you further knowledge on whether you want to click on the site or move on to the next listing.

We still didn’t see any sponsored results for our search. Perhaps a better experience with the search engine will lead to more interest from advertisers. Until then, it may be a good opportunity for inexpensive traffic for advertisers.

The changes aren’t huge, and in our small test we don’t see a new algo, but we are pleasantly surprised with Bing. Let’s hope we continue to see good things from the engine.