Bing, Microsoft’s rebranded and updated search engine, strikes me as a decent competitor to Google. It looks nice and the basic search results appear – although this is an impression rather than a scientific study – to be comprehensive.
Bing’s most distinctive feature is the technology it has employed for video search, which lets you watch a thumbnail version of a video by resting your cursor on it.
There is an interesting FT story this morning on the copyright issues this raises and whether Microsoft will be able to get away with it. The general legal view appears to be that US copyright law allows such “fair use” of images.
I do not see why not. Only a strange person would watch an entire video in thumbnail form, rather than clicking through to the original site to see a full-sized version (although it is possible someone would listen to an audio track without clicking through).
Anyway, there is something curiously appealing about being able to watch miniature video screenshots working – a bit like a modern-day wind-up toy. I imagine Google and others will attempt to catch up, giving Microsoft the satisfaction of becoming a web search innovator.
