Jul
27

Bing (and Baltimore) Made Me Do It

Now that I’ve moved from Pittsburgh to Baltimore, I’m in the process of meeting new people (and getting new work).  Suddenly, this website — which I’d previously used as a vanity placeholder, since most of my Pittsburgh work came via referral — has become relevant.  Now this page is the “first impression” that many new acquaintances who Google me will discover.

Oddly enough, this page will be doubly useful for those searchers using Bing, which seems to be weighted against Blogger and other Google-related assets.  (Doubt it?  Search my name on Bing and then on Google and note that — at the time of this writing — my Blogger blog is the top Google return yet it doesn’t even crack Bing’s top 10.)

If you try that experiment yourself, let me know what your search results turn up.  I’d be interested in knowing whether I’m an exception or a rule.

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Posted by Justin Blogging, Social Media Subscribe to RSS feed
  • Good luck with the new site and the new career opportunity.
  • Whoops. I just installed Disqus and it killed the comments I'd previously had on this post. Let's not do that again...
  • Why Baltimore? Are you enjoying yourself so far?!
  • My girlfriend got a great job offer in Baltimore, so we moved. I freelance, so unless I sign an amazing production deal that requires me to live in NY or LA, we'll probably relocate based on her career, not mine.

    Meanwhile, so far, Baltimore's been a very friendly place to call [our new] home. Once we settle all the loose ends that come with relocation, we'll focus on exploring and enjoying things. But in the meantime, no complaints.
  • You raise an interesting thought. It is my personal theory that all search engines have a little bit of bias towards whatever other websites they are affiliated with. But I have no real proof or hard data.

    It may be, in fact, that Google (since it owns blogger), is actually biased TOWARDS that site. And since Google is better at search, it makes sense that they would be able to manipulate the results, whereas Bing is still sifting through data and spitting up "whatever" results, without a refined approach.

    Here's another person's opinion of Google using bias with Knols - http://searchenginewatch.com/3630546

    And, you can also see the bias, by the way Google will pull up your "google profile" at the bottom of search results. How did this page get to be in the top ten? As soon as I filled out my google profile it started appearing in the top ten in Google, but I fill out profiles on all kinds of reputable websites that have been up for a lot longer, and they don't appear in the top ten. what gives?

    So, imo, Google = definitely biased, and the other search engines would be, too, if they could figure out how to be.

    Or, I could be completely wrong and none of this could have anything to do with bias -- take a look at the way Bing approaches SEO - This is a good outline: http://www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2009/06/20/will-...

    Try to see if any of that makes sense for your particular website(s) or what you can do to "adjust" for Bing.

    Ah, the joy of manipulating the ever-changing SERPS...
  • If I search "onedamnthing" my blog is the first result on both Google and Bing. If I search my first and last name, my LinkedIn profile is first on both. Blog doesn't show up until page 2 of Google. Still haven't found it on Bing....That may have more to say about my SEO skills, eh?
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