When a friend suggested that I try Microsoft Bing’s new shopping site I thought I’d have a little fun.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you already know that the latest and greatest version of Mac OS X (AKA Snow Leopard) is due out today, August 28th. So, I thought I’d see how easy it would be to buy it on Bing Shopping.
I typed “Snow Leopard” into Bing Shopping and lo and behold—none of the search results on the first couple of pages came remotely close to the operating system update.
I don’t know how Apple’s new OS wasn’t at the top of the list. This is a total fail on the part of Bing. It’s not like no one’s heard of it. The reviews are in and, it’s been one of the top selling items on Amazon.com.
Apparently, if Apple or another Mac product reseller wants to sell via Bing they need to place an ad. The only place to find Snow Leopard is via the sponsored links (which I usually ignore).
It’s not like it’s in Microsoft’s best interest to make it easy to buy their competitor’s but if you’re going to be in the “decision engine” business, shouldn’t you be capable of showing the most timely and relevant information possible?
3 Comments
August 31, 2009 at 9:28 pm
Bad Reporting!
Try “snow leopard” on google shopping and you won’t find the product on their website either. http://www.google.com/products?hl=en&source=hp&q=snow%20leopard&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wf
Try a little homework before bashing Microsoft – otherwise you come across as a lazy reporter who likes to take cheap shots with no insight.
What is more likely the problem here is that apple has not infused their online distribution channels with their product and product images with enough lead time to get into search engine shopping channels. As search engines are usually just crawling feeds for products and prices.
Just trying to add a thought to this thoughtless article.
Aaron
August 31, 2009 at 10:38 pm
Wow, that’s quite a bit of negativity coming from you Aaron.
While not perfect, if you look at the results from Google Shopping you’ll at least get a Snow Leopard book within the top three results.
Bing didn’t get anything related until the third page. For Bing to be successful, it has to be a lot better than Google, not as good as them. Otherwise no one will switch.
I’m not a Bing hater, per se, I’m more of a Bing agnostic. This post came as a response of a friend prompting me to check out Bing Shopping.
November 29, 2009 at 4:15 pm
“Just trying to add a thought to this thoughtless article.”
You failed, Aaron.
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