Places: Where Bing Excels

If you talk to most people about search engine results, they’ll tell you that they get the best results from Google. That used to be true 100% of the time. But there are at least two areas where I think Google is losing in search results.

The first area is in autos. Yahoo! Autos has been winning the battle on auto-related search for years. In fact, I’d say that when I research information for the automotive blogs I write, Yahoo! beats all other websites in terms of informative review information – and it’s easy to find.

The second area where I think Google is losing is in the search category Places.

Conduct this experiment: Search for “Gettysburg, Pa.” in both Google and Bing. When the search results come up, click on the Places link. What do you see?

Google Places – Not that impressive

Here’s what I see when I conduct a search for “Gettysburg, Pa.” (without the quotes) at Google Places:

An embedded map from Google Maps
6 small thumbnails of local sights right next to the map
Below the map and thumbnails is a list of links to popular local sights
All of this is followed by three web results

Wow. Not much of a big deal, huh?

I decided to see if this is a fluke so I searched for “Dallas, Texas” (again, without the quotes). Same deal, except that just before the web results is a link to Dallas City Hall with the following anchor text: “Wecome to the City of Dallas, Texas – City Web Portal”

Let’s contrast these results with the results from Bing Places.

Bing Places – Much More Well Rounded

When I conduct a search for “Gettysburg, Pa.” at Bing, here’s what I see on the results page:

A description of Gettysburg with a beautiful image of an artillery gun (both provided by Frommers).
In the right side bar is an ad (300 X 250).
Below the city description and photo is a Facebook Like button along with a Share box that allows the visitor to share the link on Facebook and comment on it.
Then there’s a 3-column spread that includes a weather conditions report on the left (provided by weather.com and Wolfram/Alpha), a list of upcoming events in Gettysburg, and a 4-part linked pictorial of related destinations (Washington, Boston, New York, Chicago).
Below that is a map of Gettysburg with pinpoint icons of local hotels. Each pinpoint is numbered and the corresponding number has the Bing Places listing for that hotel on the right side of the map with links to the hotels. There are two other links just above the listings for Attractions and Restaurants. If I click on those links the corresponding listings appear next to the map.
Finally, all of that is followed by one web listing and a PPC ad.

A search for other city locations – Dallas, Texas and Los Angeles, California – show the same page layout with similar results.

What I Like About Bing Places

There are several things that make Bing Places stand out as a useful resource for anyone interested in a location-specific search. No. 1, the page layout is not self-centered. Bing offerings are not located near the top of the page. In fact, Bing isn’t afraid to share information from other websites such as Frommer’s and weather.com. This makes Bing Places much more valuable to me as a searcher.

Secondly, Bing search (and I think Bing deserves kudos here) is much more social in nature than Google has ever thought about being. The Facebook Like and Share features are helpful and encouraging. I definitely want to share this page with my friends.

One thing that would add value to the Bing Places page is a tweet button, which isn’t there. I’d also like to see some realtime search results.

What doesn’t interest me is the related destinations links. I don’t think Washington, Boston, Chicago, or New York is anything like Gettysburg, for one thing. And, secondly, if I wanted to know about those places, I’d have searched for them. I’d like Bing to remove the related destinations section and put a realtime search feature, or something else, there instead.

I also like the interactive map. With Google’s map, you have to click on it if you want to interact and see the dynamic features (not cool, Google).

All in all, I think Microsoft/Bing has the Places search results page down. Google doesn’t.

How Can Gettysburg Businesses Use Bing Places?

Bing Places is obviously geared toward travelers. It even includes a link that allows site visitors to save the page on their Bing Travel Wish List at Facebook. If you don’t know what that is, it’s a list of places you can tag as travel destinations you’d like to go to. How cool is that?

So how can you use it? First, if you own a hotel or restaurant, then you should ensure that your business is listed in Google Places. Also, if your business is a tourist attraction, then be sure you are listed. One disappointment I had was that there was only one Attraction listed in that section of the interactive map. I know there are more attractions in Gettysburg than that.

Secondly, if you host events, submit them to Bing.

Microsoft also has advertising opportunities for businesses. If your business thrives on location targeting (hotel, B&B, tourist business, travel business, etc.), then it’s just the right kind of advertiser for a Bing Places page.

Finally, be sure your website is well optimized for traffic. You may not get tagged for being on the Bing Places results page, but if your website is well optimized, then there’s a better chance that it will end up in the organic search results or even the Bing Places results. One thing is for sure: If it isn’t optimized at all, then it won’t show up in any results. Find out how to better optimize your web pages for search results here.