Cheapest Flight from Hong Kong to London

ISOM231 Spring 2011 Assignment 2     Au Tung Ming  08121378  L2

Search: “Cheapest flight from Hong Kong to London”

The differences in paid listing

A) Title   Google allows embedding of descriptions of sponsored sites into title but Bing doesn’t. Google displays brief descriptions with a dash after the title in addition to the full description which is under the title. This makes its paid listing like the organic search. For Bing, it uses short title and the description is displayed next to the URL. This make its paid listing clear but less attractive.

B) Indication of ads   Google uses a less noticeable word to indicate the sponsored links. Google uses a indiscernible word “Ad” with light letters to show the paid sites. Bing in another way uses more pronounced words “Sponsored links” to make its paid sites more unfavorable.

C) The case of URLs   Google uses lowercase in the URLs of paid listing while Bing uses the original case for the URLs of sponsored websites. Google uses lowercase for the URLs to blur the line between the paid and organic searching. Bing shows the links with original case, for example “www.Expedia.com”.  It makes the difference in the paid listing between Google and Bing.

The differences in organic listing

D) Preview feature   Google and Bing have a totally different preview feature in organic listing. In Google, searchers can have an at-a-glance of website without actual visiting. This instant preview highlights the location where the searched terms occur in the page. Bing’s  preview feature is more simple which shows the description or content with words. However it allows share the site through Facebook, Twitter or Email with a simple click.

The emphasis of Bing search engine capability