Hands on with Bing, Microsoft's new search engine - PC World

At last, Bing has arrived. I tested a preview release of Microsoft's new search/decision engine, previously called Kumo, to see how well it compares with its predecessor, Live Search. Here's a breakdown of its new features, followed by a quick appraisal of how successful each feature is. (For an image-friendly look at some of Bing's new features, see our slideshow, "Bing: A Visual Tour of What's New.")

Bing's new look focuses on a left-hand navigation menu called the Explorer Pane. This extra column of content includes Quick Tabs that break searches down into Web Groups relevant to your search. For example, a search on "Nikon D70" triggers the Explorer Pane to create Quick Tabs for shopping, accessories, and videos all based on what your intent might be. Under Quick Tabs in the Explorer Pane are additional subcategories such as 'Related Searches' and 'Search History'; the latter, as its name implies, shows you recent searches. Microsoft asserts that 50 percent of all searches are repeats, and that providing a session history therefore offers a shortcut to results of redundant searches...