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I Finally Did It… and You Can Too!

Today… after 8-9 years of a mutually beneficial, and not always friendly relationship… I have separated myself from using Google as my default search engine, and while the new engine may not be perfect, I have found it to be better, and easier to use, more often. I may choose to switch back one day… but for now, my search business has moved elsewhere.

I Quit Using Google Search for Now!

Why, you ask? The results since the Mayday and Caffeine update…  well, the search results kinda suck!

  • It takes 2-3 searches to find anything relevant, when the search is longer than 3-4 words! 3 Months ago, the results were VERY exact!
  • Adwords are starting to dominate the “Relevant Results” on search results pages. Try viewing a Google serp on a 1024x768 screen!
  • The Google Caffeine Mashup and Sidebar is VERY Unfriendly to Webmasters (Google seems to prefer keeping the visitors on THEIR site now)
  • Google now reminds me more of a Mahalo Mashup site, than a search engine.

My answer… Bing. I know… don’t laugh, Bing is actually kind of refreshing right now though!

I started using Bing for actual product and information searches last month in a side by side type format… to compare the results. As much as I hate to see Google the search engine go away, they just lost a user. I still use gmail and love the email service and will continue to use the igoogle dashboard as my desktop for now… but if it too becomes overwhelmed with ads and starts taking MY choices and injecting their own, it will go away also.

I made the hard choice and set my browser(s) search pages to Bing in July, and haven’t looked back.

How to change the default search engine in your browser:

Not Trying to Start A Movement… but…

This video is kick-ass whether for ANYTHING! Just a great motivator…

Have you Tried Bing Today? If so, what have you found?

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About the Author, Mark Hansen

has written 573 article(s) at the Niche Store Builder site.

I have been doing my part to "Build the Internet" since 1994, when I built my first website! Since then, I have built hundreds of niche websites for myself and many others, focused on design, applications, ecommerce, search optimization and internet marketing. 

Latest Readers Who Commented on This Article

19 Comments »

  • Rochelle said:

    This is a rather timely post. While I have not officially made the switch, I’ve found myself going back to Yahoo lately, for the same reason. The results on Google suck right now. Bing is something I have not yet tried, but I will based on your suggestion.

    Reply – Quote
    # 10 August 2010 at 9:14 am
  • Joe Wilson said:

    I have to admit Mark, though I have not made the switch… I’ve been getting more frustrated using Google then I EVER have. sucks because I love the old google.

    I’ll have to give bing a try and see for myself

    Reply – Quote
    # 10 August 2010 at 9:20 am
  • Daniel said:

    i agree, the mayday/caffeine updates really screwed G. The serps are just inundated with spam now. I guess its time for me to make the switch to bing too.

    Reply – Quote
    # 10 August 2010 at 9:20 am
  • Domain Sales said:

    Bing! Bang! Boom! I have been telling other webmasters, especially new ones that if you are small, ignore the big goog as you will become frustrated as a webmaster. I have made my living off of Yahoo and other search engines. Anything from goog is just a plus is the approach I have always taken. Yes they have been the leader but for themselves not the webmaster. I like Bing, better if the images were gone on the homepage, personal taste. Anyway Mark, i have been a quiet follower of your blog and always like your thoughts. So i guess goog is no longer the “non evil” search engine? they have become like everyone else and just seem to answer to share holders and chasing the buck. Maybe they should deindexed themselves for being just a thin affiliate site with a lot of pages that are just spammy!

    Reply – Quote
    # 10 August 2010 at 9:24 am
  • Mike said:

    Yeah I have to agree. The Google update sucks and the results suck. I can’t lay the blame totally at their door though. Anything that attempts to rank the internet is subject to manipulation and millions of dollars are spent on doing just that. Plus, right now, googles business model is under assault and getting killed by Facebook. Facebook is very likely to take the Google crown in the next couple of years. Did you know Facebook accounts for over 17% of the total time we spend on the internet (I dislike facebook more than google)?

    Googles interests no longer lie in search but ads. At the end of the day it is a glorified ad network and it wants to work with corporations with large ad budgets. Ideally it would like a web consisting of a couple of dozen large partners – amazon, ebay etc all colluding together to limit choice and become as rich as possible.

    Rant over.

    Reply – Quote
    # 10 August 2010 at 9:28 am
  • Sean said:

    I agree, totally. My wife made the change to Bing a long time ago and she is a user that likes simplicity. I stopped using them because they always shut down my ppc affiliate programs.

    Bring back the old EPN and the old Google.

    Your “Nut” alone – watched the video. lol

    Reply – Quote
    # 10 August 2010 at 9:30 am
  • Mark Hansen (author) said:

    @Rochelle – Hey Rochelle, the results across Yahoo and Bing are the same, or getting to the same. Yahoo started using Bing for its results about a month or so ago to select markets.

    Yahoo does show the results in a different way for sure… and I think the only reason I haven’t used it more, are the prominent sponsored results.

    @Joe Wilson – Same here Joe. I still go to Goog and do searches, but its no longer the default engine that it used to be.

    There are some VERY interesting discussions at Webmaster world and Blackhat world about the google serps right now as well. Almost like…

    They changed -
    They cannot go back, period –

    Cutting off nose to spite the face kinda views, and MattCutts has been as quiet as ever, even though Spam is dominating the results!

    @Daniel – Its definitely worth a try Dan. I found better results 75% of the time. Not perfect, but definitely worthy of a switch for myself.

    M

    Reply – Quote
    # 10 August 2010 at 9:30 am
  • Mike said:

    That video is genius – staged – but genius.

    Reply – Quote
    # 10 August 2010 at 9:32 am
  • Mark Hansen (author) said:

    @Domain Sales – Greg, glad to see you commenting! :-) Google is definitely held to its earnings buy shareholders, and so are others. The latest results in search do for sure seem weighted toward revenue, but you cannot blame them, I would do the same thing if we owned it! :-)

    Maybe they should deindexed themselves for being just a thin affiliate site

    That would be funny right there!

    @Mike – You are correct about the FB trigger, which may be the hype behind the reported new Google service “Google-Me”.

    I STOPPED using FaceBook because it took too much of my time away from work stuff! Its a HUGE drain on time and unless you have a personal assistance (Like Chow or Shoemoney) you will not get much work done during the day!

    About the video… Agree… Staged AND Fantastic!

    M

    Reply – Quote
    # 10 August 2010 at 10:24 am
  • Terry said:

    Mark-

    Timely post! I spent a yesterday bouncing around between google and bing doing searches and bing was better by far. Sad to see as I used to like the simple google search page and have been using it for years.

    Reply – Quote
    # 10 August 2010 at 11:05 am
  • Chris Deals said:

    Great video. You are very correct, I have found myself having to do multiple searches on Google to find what I’m looking for. I really hate when they list tons of products above my search results. Changing would hard, but I will give Bing a try.

    Reply – Quote
    # 10 August 2010 at 11:16 am
  • Rochelle said:

    I have a bunch of Christmas sites that I built last year but did almost no backlink building. By this I mean that I only built a few links for just a few sites. About 80% of the sites have NO backlinks. I did nothing more than build the sites.

    These sites have languished in Google, and most are no where to be seen within the top 1000 results of Google, but I’ve never checked how they are doing in Yahoo or Bing.

    On a whim, I just now checked and the results are very interesting. Almost every one of the sites that are no where in Google are on the first pages of Bing and Yahoo, with several of them sitting in the #1 spots! Granted, some of the sites are also no where to be found in these two search engines, but I’m floored at these results. Looks like there is potential in these other sites, even with no effort whatsoever on my part. Time to dust off these sites and see how they will do come December.

    Rochelle

    Reply – Quote
    # 10 August 2010 at 11:53 am
  • Marilla said:

    Hey Mark

    You read my mind! I’ve really noticed how crap Google has been the last few days in particular, so I laughed when I read your post. It’s a testament to how brain-washed I am that I didn’t even think of using Bing. It’s time for a change….

    Reply – Quote
    # 10 August 2010 at 12:08 pm
  • Joe said:

    I switched to Bing when Google banned my AdWords account for no reason. I just can’t stand the arrogance of G anymore – no customer support, robot replies to questions, no help whatsoever. Idiots.

    Oh yea, their search results do suck, and soon will only be sponsored results. I hope they rot.

    Reply – Quote
    # 10 August 2010 at 12:54 pm
  • Tyler - Niche Store Journey said:

    You raise some interesting points here Mark.

    I’ve always personally just used Google because I was under some type of notion that as a webmaster I “had to” in order to be most in touch with my users and what not.

    I think it may be worth a shot to show it the door for a while and try an alternative.

    Reply – Quote
    # 10 August 2010 at 1:19 pm
  • Richie said:

    Great you switched, Mark. I have alway hated Google and their products. I never use them (only the search, that was then).

    They are quickly converting themselves to ‘Jack of all trades, master of none’. They dabble in everything and fail in most. Their stupid android phone for example.

    They need to stick with search and make it better. At the moment, GOOGLE SEARCH AND THEIR OTHER PRODUCTS SUCK BIG TIME!

    Reply – Quote
    # 10 August 2010 at 4:48 pm
  • Mark Sierra said:

    You know, it’s funny — I’ve been using Google exclusively for I don’t know how long. It just was THE search engine for me. But after reading your post, it’s like a splash of cold water in my face making me realize all the times I felt I was disappointed in the results, but not really noticing why. It never occurred to me to even go to another provider.

    But after today, I think I will. :)

    Reply – Quote
    # 11 August 2010 at 12:41 am
  • friedli said:

    Google results are getting crazy. It’s nothing but ads above the fold. They are making their search too complicated for your everyday user. I hope they re-evaluate their mind set.

    At what point do you say, “29 billion in yearly revenue is plenty?”

    Reply – Quote
    # 11 August 2010 at 12:18 pm
  • Big Brands Get a Kickback from Google, Everyone Else Gets F* | Niche Store Builder said:

    [...] a Kickback from Google, Everyone Else Gets F* 24 August 2010 No Comments YetTagged withJust because I decided to start using Bing versus Google for all my web searching doesn’t mean I don’t revisit to see whats going on and compare [...]

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    # 24 August 2010 at 8:59 am