Bing, the search engine from Microsoft, has a better
design than Google, a usability study from Catalyst Group has
found.
The research house, which examines how users interact with
websites, set up a focus group to compare the two search engines
and found that most users preferred Bing's visual design and
thought it was slightly better organised when compared to
Google.
In particular, users in the focus group said Bing's design was
warmer and more inviting than Google, plus its initial search
results page was more helpful. Bing also fared better in terms of
refining searches.
In spite of the positive user feedback, the focus group was
happy to carry on using Google because of their familiarity with it
and the fact that they were already using other Google Apps.
Catalyst Group gave
Google a usability rating of eight, while Microsoft's Bing
trailed with four points.