The Challenger: Microsoft Unveils Bing

On Thursday, Microsoft unveiled Bing, its new search engine, at a conference in San Diego, and the company insisted that the name was not the point. The point, the executives said, was that Bing was not a search engine at all but a decision engine, a tool built to help people decide, not just to find. The company had spent years and billions chasing the leader, and the chase had produced the challenger. The reveal is the May 2009 story, and the story is the lesson: when the number two spends a decade chasing the number one, the chase itself becomes the story.

The Challenger is the subject of this article: what Bing is, where it came from, what Microsoft is betting, and why the search engine wars refuse to end. The unveiling happened on Thursday, May 28, and the conversation about the future of search is just beginning. The stage was the industry's most watched conference, and the conference was the platform for the fight. This is the story of the launch, and the story is about the long fight for the most valuable market on the internet.

1. The Reveal

The reveal was a stage, and the stage was the message. Microsoft chose the All Things Digital conference in San Diego, the industry's most watched stage, to show the world its new search engine. Chief executive Steve Ballmer and the head of online services, Qi Lu, walked the audience through the product, and the product had a name the world had never heard: Bing. The two men shared the stage, and the sharing was the signal that the company was serious.

The reveal was the beginning of the campaign, not the end of it. The company promised a public launch in the days ahead, and the promise was the countdown. The conference was the opening move, the first look, the tease before the full release. The world saw the screenshots and the demos, and the world formed its first opinions. The press wrote its first stories, the bloggers typed their first reactions, and the first impressions were the start of the conversation. The reveal was the moment, and the moment was Microsoft's to control.

2. The Name

The name was the controversy, and the controversy was the conversation. Bing: a word that sounded like a verb, a word that sounded like a search, a word that sounded like nothing else on the market. The name was chosen to be short and global and memorable, and the choice was mocked and praised in the same breath. The name was the talk of the internet for a day. The jokes wrote themselves, and the jokes were the publicity.

The name was also the signal. Microsoft had burned through names before, MSN Search, Live Search, and each name had been a fresh start that ended in the same place. Bing was the promise that this time would be different, that the product was new enough to deserve a new identity. The name was the flag planted in the ground, and the flag was the commitment. The name was the question everyone asked, and the answer was the ambition. The word was the brand, and the brand was the bet.

3. The Decision Engine

The decision engine was the pitch, and the pitch was the difference. Bing was not built to return lists of links, the company said; Bing was built to help people decide. The left rail offered related searches, the hover previews showed the page without a click, the results were organized into categories, and the video and image search were rebuilt for the way people actually looked. The features were the demonstration, and the demonstration was the argument.

The features were the argument. The shopping search offered cashback, the travel search helped plan trips, the health search organized conditions and treatments. The claim was that Google gave you links and Bing gave you answers, and the claim was the challenge. The demos were polished, the examples were chosen, and the choices were the pitch. The decision engine was the positioning, and the positioning was the bet: that search was not finished, that the leader could be beaten with a better idea of what search was for.

4. The History

The history was the weight, and the weight was the context. Microsoft had been chasing search for the better part of a decade, spending billions on its own engines and its own advertising systems, and the billions had bought a single digit share of the market. Live Search, adCenter, the failed bids to buy Yahoo: the history was the record of a giant that could not crack the code. The record was public, and the publicness was the pressure.

The history was also the explanation. The company that had won the operating system war and the office software war had never won the internet war, and the search engine was the front line. The money spent was the measure of the importance: search was not a side project, search was the battleground of the web. The search box was the doorway to the internet, and the doorway was the prize. The history was the burden Bing carried into the reveal, and the burden was the challenge. Every Microsoft product had faced a moment like this, the moment of the late challenger, and the moments had been won with patience and money; the search war was the latest test of the old method, and the wait had not worked yet, and the not working was the reason for the new approach.

5. The Numbers

The numbers were the reality, and the reality was stark. Google held around two thirds of the American search market, the analysts estimated, and Microsoft held a small fraction of that, a single digit share that had barely moved in years. The numbers were the mountain, and the mountain was the climb. Bing was launching into a market where the leader had more than ten times the share. The gap was the scale of the task, and the scale was the story.

The numbers were also the opportunity. Every point of search share was worth billions in advertising revenue, the math went, and the math was the reason the fight continued. The search market was the biggest advertising market on the internet, bigger than any newspaper, bigger than any television network, and the bigness was the prize. The advertisers followed the audience, and the audience was the fortune. The numbers said the task was enormous, and the numbers said the reward was enormous too.

6. The Business

The business was the engine, and the engine was advertising. Search advertising was the most valuable advertising on earth, because the person searching was a person who wanted something, and the ad that answered the want was worth the most. Microsoft had built its own advertising system, adCenter, to collect the revenue, and Bing was the traffic that would feed it. The system was the machine, and the machine was the money.

The business was also the scale problem. The advertisers followed the audience, and the audience followed the results, and the results followed the investment, and the circle was hard to break. Microsoft had the money to invest, and the investment was the strategy: spend for years, take share slowly, and make the economics work at scale. The losses were the tuition, and the tuition was the price of the ambition. The business was the long game, and the long game was the plan. The analysts tracked the search share every month, and the tracking was the scoreboard of the internet era; the company was not throwing money away, the executives argued, the company was buying a position in the most important market of the decade.

7. The Rivalry

The rivalry was the story of the industry, and the industry was the duel. Microsoft versus Google was the great fight of the internet era: the software giant against the search giant, the old empire against the new one. Google had beaten Microsoft at the web, and Microsoft had never accepted the defeat. Bing was the latest round, and the latest round was the point of the conference. The fight was the subtext of every demo, and the subtext was the drama.

The rivalry was also the rumor mill. The talk at the conference and in the press was of Microsoft and Yahoo, of a partnership that would combine the number two and the number three against the number one, and the rumors were the background music of the launch. The executives dodged the questions, and the dodging was the answer. The rivalry was not just product against product; the rivalry was the whole chessboard. The duel was the story, and the story was the war.

8. The Lesson

The lesson of the launch was about persistence, and the persistence was the point. Microsoft had failed at search for years, had spent billions and lost billions, and the failure had not ended the fight. Bing was the proof that the company would not stop, that the market was too important to abandon. The lesson was that the giants do not give up on the battles that matter. The patience was the strategy, and the strategy was the strength.

The lesson was also about the product as the argument. Microsoft was not just spending money; Microsoft was making a case, a case about what search could be, a case about decisions and answers and a better way to find. Whether the case would win was an open question, and the openness was the drama. The market would vote with its clicks, and the clicks would come in the weeks ahead. The reveal is the May 2009 story, and the story is the lesson: when the number two spends a decade chasing the number one, the chase itself becomes the story. The launch came on Thursday, and the fight went on.

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