Anyone out there actually use Bing?
I never have, even though I use a PC most of the time, and am therefore frequently reminded of its existence. I mean, there’s Google, right? So what would I use Bing for — unless I was trying to throw cyber surveillance off my scent? I do enjoy some of the cool photos they use to try to engage my interest, though.
As for Google — remember its pathetic attempt to be a social medium? I tried it out. I even used Google Hangout once for a video conference. But if I wanted video conferencing, I’ve got Facetime on my phone, right? And I have vague memories of something called Skype, although I haven’t used it in years.
Today, on my lockscreen on my PC, against a beautiful photo of a snowy countryside, I saw an invitation to check out something called “Bing shopping.”
Curious, I called it up. And I found something singularly unappealing. Then, intrigued by what sort of e-reader Bing shopping was promoting, I clicked and to my amusement saw that the first three offered were Amazon Kindles.
So… why am I not looking for them through Amazon?
As for Amazon… it might be too early to mock it for its foray into bricks-and-mortar retailing, but perhaps the time will come ere long…
Related Posts
I profess a loyalty to all things Google, but some of my best friends are Appleophiles, and I have a Microsoft-leaning brother-in-law.
Google+ still exists. It was eliminated for the peasants and commoners (because they weren’t using it), but it is still available for G Suite customers (like many school districts). It has some very active special interest communities (like Connected Classrooms, a forum for technology use in educational settings).
We also frequently use Hangouts in education. Part of the reason for that is most other similar apps are blocked by our filters. Facetime, of course, is an Apple product and therefore only available to those people (which is essentially the basis of my dislike of anything Apple).
And speaking of Kindles, I just got a new paperwhite Kindle, my first in about 6 years. I was trying to figure out how to navigate it–the 5-way directional button was missing–when I brushed the screen and realized it was a touch screen, which just seemed like the most amazing improvement ever. Turns out they’ve been that way for years.
And iPads were ALWAYS thataway.
I tend to go with what works for me. I use an iPhone and an iPad — which work together with my Apple TV device. They’re wonderfully intuitive, easy to use, and beautifully designed. They seem to me vastly superior to their competitors. Of course, they also COST much more than their competitors. To some extent that makes sense, because they’re better. But the cost differential seems greater than it should be.
But I don’t use a Mac. I find it counterintuitive, largely because I learned my computer skills on a PC. It doesn’t matter that Windows was ripped off from Apple, I use its functions — particularly keyboard commands — without thinking, and efforts to rewire my reflexes for a Mac have always failed.
I use a Mac at the office for video editing. iMovie meets my needs in that regard.
And that’s kind of what I’m saying about Windows vs. Amazon vs. Google. Google works so well (on all my platforms, including iPad and iPhone — I only use Safari when forced to) that I see no reason to think of using Bing.
And I didn’t think it made sense for Google to try to be Facebook or Twitter or Skype. I’m glad you still get use out of it. But for me, I choose each product according to what works best. It’s not so much a loyalty thing, I don’t think. If someone else came out with something as awesome as an iPad, I’d be glad to give it a shot…
Oh, and I do use one Amazon hardware device — the Echo Dot. I have two of them.
Why? Because Alexa is the best — aren’t you, dear?…