Being so publicly outed as a Mac fanboy today was a little uncomfortable.
Not least because my various views on Microsoft have been informed positively by being on its payroll for the last two years. Not, I should say, simply through a sense of polite obligation (for it would be at least impolite to bite the hand that feeds you), but through obtaining a genuine appreciation for things here.
Indeed after many years as a PC fanboy, my quest for something different led me to Apple in 2004 via numerous wholly false or aimless starts with Linux along the way. And you wouldn't have to dig too deeply into the archives of this blog to reveal my long standing appreciation for what comes out of Cupertino.
But according to the Mac vs. PC rules of engagement; an active combatant cannot abide by the charter of one faction while holding any favour for the other. The implication therefore is that as a Mac user, every fibre of my being must align, and align belligerently, against Microsoft.
Not true.
I've used Windows 7 every day since January this year and concur wholeheartedly with the good vibes that surround its imminent launch, I blogged here a few months back about my unbound affection for Microsoft's Unified Communications play and I've been using Bing since prior to its launch when it was known internally as Kumo.
When I started working for Microsoft two years ago I consciously set myself a personal rule not to use Google search while on the Microsoft corporate network. It didn't feel right. Plus I liked to imagine that a little flashing red light might go off somewhere in HR if I did. But seriously, in pursuit of upholding this principled gesture of respect for my employer, my own productivity has occasionally been hindered by always looking for things in Microsoft's Live Search first, before sometimes inevitably reverting to Google. But when Kumo / Bing first showed up I decided to be completely search monogamous and forsake Google search completely to see what happened.
And it occurred to me the other week that no sooner had I set my new hardline Zero-G / Bing All The Way rule that I quickly became oblivious to it for two reasons.
First, Bing just works.
It feels better, it looks better and it works much, much better than its predecessors. I don't know who found the secret sauce that was missing for so long, but I think Bing pretty much nails search to the extent that I'm no longer falling back to Google to find things. Evidenced by the generally good karma that surrounded its launch and which still persists today, I would estimate that my positive experience is not a solitary one.
The second reason is that I don't think search is as important as it used to be. We have worn habitualized social pathways around the web that didn't exist ten years ago; whether those be through our daily visits to Facebook, Twitter, BBC News or whatever your personal favourites list happens to comprise. Meaning we no longer start each engagement with the web as if it was a blank sheet of paper where access to a good search engine facility was a major help.
When we first engaged with the internet on a individual level - back when we still capitalised the letter 'i' - the big deal was navigating, finding and ordering the vast oceans of (supposed) knowledge and information which lay within. Gopher, Yahoo! (in its original old-skool Directory form ), Alta-Vista and others, combined their various efforts to manhandle and wrangle the vast, random contents of the web into a sense of meaningful order.
Then Google showed up and in a single move, nailed it.
Beyond the bare bones simplicity of its front page in a time when the original search engine brigade was getting flabby and annoying, Google just worked.
But critically it was its simplicity as much as its accuracy that won it fans from an elite audience which was well used to simple, clean and noob-intimidating command line and coding interfaces. If Yahoo! had morphed into a version of the internet with training wheels for your mother, then Google was for the hard-core tech community; an important factor that helped Google secure its critical early adopter popularity. Indeed, if you'd searched for just the word Gary on Google circa 2001-2002, yours truly and this very blog was returned as the number one search result. And the number two, three and so on. It's as if Google was actually buying support and love of me and countless other bloggers upon whose praise and up-sucking its widening popularity grew.
But I don't care about Google any more. Possibly because I don't care about search any more. It's a service, a commodity; the novelty has gone. As long as I find what I'm looking for, I don't care if it's a Google or a Schmoogle that gets me there.
And if there is no longer a compelling reason to use what has now become an unremarkable, everyday service - besides one's fickle habit - then the once seemingly invincible position Google enjoyed for so long may begin to look a little flimsier today.
And so, I think Microsoft might find it a whole lot easier to win market share (and respect) with Bing because if I'm right and people are growing more ambivalent about search as I noticed I have, then on this new, more level playing field, Microsoft and Bing might just finally be able to give Google a run for its money.
Go Bing!
Not least because my various views on Microsoft have been informed positively by being on its payroll for the last two years. Not, I should say, simply through a sense of polite obligation (for it would be at least impolite to bite the hand that feeds you), but through obtaining a genuine appreciation for things here.
Indeed after many years as a PC fanboy, my quest for something different led me to Apple in 2004 via numerous wholly false or aimless starts with Linux along the way. And you wouldn't have to dig too deeply into the archives of this blog to reveal my long standing appreciation for what comes out of Cupertino.
But according to the Mac vs. PC rules of engagement; an active combatant cannot abide by the charter of one faction while holding any favour for the other. The implication therefore is that as a Mac user, every fibre of my being must align, and align belligerently, against Microsoft.
Not true.
I've used Windows 7 every day since January this year and concur wholeheartedly with the good vibes that surround its imminent launch, I blogged here a few months back about my unbound affection for Microsoft's Unified Communications play and I've been using Bing since prior to its launch when it was known internally as Kumo.
When I started working for Microsoft two years ago I consciously set myself a personal rule not to use Google search while on the Microsoft corporate network. It didn't feel right. Plus I liked to imagine that a little flashing red light might go off somewhere in HR if I did. But seriously, in pursuit of upholding this principled gesture of respect for my employer, my own productivity has occasionally been hindered by always looking for things in Microsoft's Live Search first, before sometimes inevitably reverting to Google. But when Kumo / Bing first showed up I decided to be completely search monogamous and forsake Google search completely to see what happened.
And it occurred to me the other week that no sooner had I set my new hardline Zero-G / Bing All The Way rule that I quickly became oblivious to it for two reasons.
First, Bing just works.
It feels better, it looks better and it works much, much better than its predecessors. I don't know who found the secret sauce that was missing for so long, but I think Bing pretty much nails search to the extent that I'm no longer falling back to Google to find things. Evidenced by the generally good karma that surrounded its launch and which still persists today, I would estimate that my positive experience is not a solitary one.
The second reason is that I don't think search is as important as it used to be. We have worn habitualized social pathways around the web that didn't exist ten years ago; whether those be through our daily visits to Facebook, Twitter, BBC News or whatever your personal favourites list happens to comprise. Meaning we no longer start each engagement with the web as if it was a blank sheet of paper where access to a good search engine facility was a major help.
When we first engaged with the internet on a individual level - back when we still capitalised the letter 'i' - the big deal was navigating, finding and ordering the vast oceans of (supposed) knowledge and information which lay within. Gopher, Yahoo! (in its original old-skool Directory form ), Alta-Vista and others, combined their various efforts to manhandle and wrangle the vast, random contents of the web into a sense of meaningful order.
Then Google showed up and in a single move, nailed it.
Beyond the bare bones simplicity of its front page in a time when the original search engine brigade was getting flabby and annoying, Google just worked.
But critically it was its simplicity as much as its accuracy that won it fans from an elite audience which was well used to simple, clean and noob-intimidating command line and coding interfaces. If Yahoo! had morphed into a version of the internet with training wheels for your mother, then Google was for the hard-core tech community; an important factor that helped Google secure its critical early adopter popularity. Indeed, if you'd searched for just the word Gary on Google circa 2001-2002, yours truly and this very blog was returned as the number one search result. And the number two, three and so on. It's as if Google was actually buying support and love of me and countless other bloggers upon whose praise and up-sucking its widening popularity grew.
But I don't care about Google any more. Possibly because I don't care about search any more. It's a service, a commodity; the novelty has gone. As long as I find what I'm looking for, I don't care if it's a Google or a Schmoogle that gets me there.
And if there is no longer a compelling reason to use what has now become an unremarkable, everyday service - besides one's fickle habit - then the once seemingly invincible position Google enjoyed for so long may begin to look a little flimsier today.
And so, I think Microsoft might find it a whole lot easier to win market share (and respect) with Bing because if I'm right and people are growing more ambivalent about search as I noticed I have, then on this new, more level playing field, Microsoft and Bing might just finally be able to give Google a run for its money.
Go Bing!
