I was visiting a website today about technology news and in the sidebar of the page was an ad for using the new Microsoft Bing search engine. Recently I found a fortune cookie that told me "bing" in Chinese (now, I know for a fact this isn't the only interpretation) can mean "disease." The opposite side of this "fortune" read: Truth can be harsh, but it can be helpful. So maybe you can use Bing (or bing) to help you find things. But what I really want to comment on is the ad itself. First, they're out to use "bing" as a verb. "Google it," might become "bing it." Okay, they chose a probable word in English and they want to attach meaning to it. We'll see if that works out. But the example in question is a Microsoft product, their own webcam. Their silly "cashback" program is at play here (a poor icon choice, I think, because cash sounds like squishy green paper money, not gold coins from an arcade game), but would you use their search engine maybe only to search for products they themselves made?? Then there's the hilarity involved, in using your own product as a prop, and learning "it's not the best." It's only a 4-star webcam, not 5. Only 86% of people found its size a positive factor? Where do these metrics come from? Is Bing chasing Amazon (with the stars and orange color) or Google? Lastly, would you type in web cams (with a space) or webcams? Let's go to Bing and find out if this works the way they propose. No, I didn't get a nice picture of a webcam and arrows pointing out the benefits. The ad is contrived. I clicked on "top 10," hoping to see the graphics with arrows and reviews. What shocked me was what a knock-off of Google bing really is. "Sponsored sites" on the right, blue headings with links for the results, and green URLs with cached versions. Take away the stupid surfer at the top (now, if the search results page put in an image that related to my search, say, a big fancy Microsoft webcam, then I'd be impressed, but what surfing has to do with webcams is quite foreign to me), and you'd think you were looking at a Google page, perhaps. More curious notes: * the word "web" at the top left is not on the same line as the next words. * MSN and WindowsLive is also not on the same line as the rest either. * Why do all of their properties need a Bing search bar at the top? It's on WindowsLive, MSN, etc. Oh, that's right, you might not be using Internet Explorer. Poorly done.