Bing! And Other Stuff

I'm sure most of you Gentle Readers have heard about Bing, Microsoft's redesigned search engine. I've used it a few times but still use Google a lot more, mainly because I've customized my Google page to include a lot of widgets… including their RSS reader, weather, headlines from the NYT, WaPo, the Beeb, memorandum… and so on. Google is sorta my one-stop shop for jumping off on to these inter-tubes.

But, that said, I found the "Bing vs. Google" site to be quite an eye opener. Here's a screen shot:

So… if you click for larger you'll get a full-screen comparison of my search results for "Santa Fe." As for Bing... note that the "related searches" list is directly in the left sidebar (read as: immediately accessible), and also note the Wikipedia entry on Santa Fe is the third item on the list. Also note the comparative lack of advertising, something that's long irritated me about Google. Bing gets even better when you search for images… and it's head and shoulders above Google in this regard, believe me. Try it!

I read about "Bing vs. Google" in a NYT article on Bing (Bing, the Imitator, Often Goes Google One Better), which is quite good in and of itself. You'll note the title of the piece is favorable to Bing… as is the rest of the article. Good reading if you're into search engines. Or even if you're not.

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I was gonna post this random thought yesterday but forgot to do so: aren't you glad the Founding Fathers waited until summer to declare our independence from Britain? The Fourth of January wouldn't be quite the same now, would it? Think parades, fireworks, barbeques, and the like. We'd have a completely different set of traditions if we'd have revolted against the Crown in the dead of winter…

Yet another example of just how brilliant and forward thinking our founders were. (yeah, my tongue IS in my cheek)

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I mentioned this in comments to yesterday's post, but… Yesterday's WX forecast was rather pessimistic by saying we were going to 103 degrees. We only hit 98, which is hot enough for most people, including Yr HmblScrb. But it was bearable and rather pleasant, even… as long as you remained in the shade and were relatively inactive. I wouldn't have wanted to be doing any sort of serious manual labor outside yesterday, but it was great beer drinkin' and cigar smokin' weather. Last evening around sundown was even better for that sort of activity, if you substitute single-malt for beer.

Now… all that said… our weather prognosticators are still predicting 100-degree temps again today, 104 to be specific. And we just might get there, seeing as how it's 95 degrees as I type at 1115 hrs.

Wow.