Now it should come as no surprise that the old Ma Bell telephone companies love to charge for this service – have you made a call to 411 on your landline (remember those?) lately?  If so, you know that you can get socked with an outrageous charge just to find a phone number.  So when Google launched their 411 service it was an instant hit with me.  Now I could use it anytime, anyplace without worrying about having to pay for it.

And so I did… and was happy with the service.. until Bing launched their 411 service.  Then I was no longer happy – I was addicted!

Bing continues to impress me – more relevant search results, and the ability to find what I am looking for within the first ten results.  That alone has made me a fan since day one.  Today I came across a Twitter post about Bing 411 and had to try it out.  I spent a good 15 minutes just playing around with it.  This was what 411 should be – this wasn’t basic 411 from the phone company or the business-only 411 Google offers.  This was 411+.

Weather, traffic – even cheap gas prices – all waiting for you to just ask for it.  My first lookup on Bing 411 was for Copeland’s Auto Service in Boonville, MO.  For some reason Google 411 has an awful time locating this business that has been around for over 10 years and it takes me at least 4-5 tries to get it to find it.  Not so with Bing!  The very first result was what I was looking for.  Woo hoo! 

Next I decided to have fun with the cheap gas locator.  Now, granted, its still in beta – but sure enough it worked!  I found a station near me in zip code 65201 that had gas for 3-cents a gallon cheaper than what I thought was the cheapest gas in town!  Woo hoo!

About 5 minutes later I had deleted Google 411 from my cell phone and replaced it with Bing 411.  Because, I’m telling you, this thing is just plain cool.  It’s like that Black Eyed Peas song “Boom Boom Pow” – Bing seems so 3008 and Google seems so 2000 and late.

Interested in trying Bing 411?  Just call 1-800-BING-411 and enjoy!

Bing bills itself as a decision engine and promises to free us from search overload.  I have to admit, I’ve been using it for two days now and so far Microsoft is living up to the promise.  I’m highly impressed at how Bing can focus in on determining what I am asking and trying to give me relevant results instead of just throwing everything in its database at me.

Case in point.  I’ve recently became a very active fitness buff (feel free to come follow my progress over on Nike+) and wanted to pick up a new pair of Nike Shox M1+ running shoes.  I had went to the mall after work and didn’t really see what I wanted, so though OK I would give Bing a try.  Not only did Bing find me the shoes at $20 less than I expected to pay, but it also found them locally at a store I had walked right past in the mall!  Now THAT is relevant results that I can use!

Ok.  So maybe Bing just got lucky.  Time to throw it some curve balls.  I live in a rather small town of about 10,000 in Missouri called Boonville.  Nice place, and a great river town.  We don’t have a whole bunch of restaurants, but we got enough to give us the variety we need – and they are all locally owned for the most part.  I asked Bing to show me the restaurants local to me.  I was impressed when the results came back with not only the restaurants, but pricing and reviews as well.  Cool!

Now of course there are always a few rough edges in any new products, so I have to admit that a few restaurants from nearby Columbia, MO (about 20 miles down the road) snuck in – but hey, to be fair, the same thing happens over on Google as well.

What Bing is doing, and I think doing rather well, is that it is just not throwing back a bunch of results like a typical search engine does and saying “have fun”.  It’s actually trying to narrow down your query and focus in on relevant results that fit the context of what you are searching for.  Just like the librarian at the library, Bing is trying to understand exactly what you are needing and not just throwing back the entire card catalog at you.

I’ve been a Google fan for years because even though it threw back all the results, it threw them back in a manner where at least in the first 20 or so I could find something that was relevant and then go from there.  Now with Bing I’m finding that I’m getting back relevant results on the first try which is really nice.

Has Microsoft finally found their footing in the search engine marketplace?  I think so, and I think in finding their footing they have also reinvented search and coined a new phrase which I predict will be around for a while to come – the decision engine.

Google, Yahoo, Ask and others – meet the new librarian.  It’s name is Bing.