Don Dodge on The Next Big Thing

Page views required to generate $1M in ad revenue?

Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Beebo, Plaxo, Orkut, and MSN Spaces are the biggest well known social network spaces. But what about the 800 other sites scrambling for audiences in the social network space? Can they generate $1M in advertising revenue per month, or even per year? Will they ever be profitable?

USA Today says "Social Network Sites Work To Turn Users Into Profits" and summarizes the problem with this quote;

"Short of striking it rich with online ads or creating a new revenue stream, how can so many sites leverage their vast audiences? In many respects, it is the same query that dogged portal companies in the mid-1990s and search engines in the early '90s. Some were sold. Some went public. Some went belly up.

The ongoing challenge is to concoct a potion — be it through banner ads, premium subscriptions or licensing agreements — that no one has perfected. Facebook, crown jewel of the field, is valued at $15 billion but barely turns a profit."

CPM versus CPC - Big audiences are great but how you monetize them is the key to financial success. Google and the search companies are able to sell Cost Per Click (CPC) ads and command very high rates. Content sites and social networks don't have a search term to key off so they charge Cost Per Thousand (Mil) or CPM rates. In some cases it can take 1,000 page views to generate the same revenue as one click on an ad.

A penny for your thoughts? I talked to a Facebook App developer at the ReMix conference a few weeks ago. He told me his app is generating 300 million page views per month. Wow! Then I asked what kind of CPM (Cost Per Thousand) ad rates he was getting. He shrugged and said somewhere between $0.02 and $0.05 per thousand. That pencils out to between $6K and $15K of advertising revenue per month for those 300 million page views.

How much traffic is needed to generate $1M in ad revenue? It all depends on how well you can target your audience and how much you can charge for CPM rates. But, based on a survey of social network sites let's assume an average CPM of $0.40. You would need 2.5 Billion page views per month to earn $1M in ad revenues. That is 2,500,000,000 page views...and how many sites can sell out all their page view inventory?

A New Revenue Model? - Google revolutionized the search business by banning display ads sold on a CPM basis, and instead offering text based ads where you only pay when someone clicks on the ad, what we now refer to as CPC.

It will probably take a new revenue approach to make many Social Networks profitable. From the USA Today story;

"Facebook's ambitious plan to reshape advertising — via a new approach to social marketing, called Beacon — was a bust. The idea was to inform friends whenever a Facebook member purchased something from online retailers. When consumers protested its invasion of privacy, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg acknowledged the miscue and promptly apologized.

Even Google, as close to a money mint as anything online, has struggled. Google has a deal with Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. to place ads on MySpace, and owns Orkut, which flopped in the USA. Co-founder Sergey Brin recently admitted the "monetization work we were doing there didn't pan out as well as we had hoped."

Which new model will work? No one knows at this point, but there will be billions of dollars for whoever figures it out.

Beacon was innovative, but privacy concerns killed it. We are often influenced by what our friends buy, maybe just a slightly different approach will work.

Social recommendations are very powerful. Back in the early days of the web there were several attempts to consolidate buyers into groups to get better prices. Could social networks do something similar?

Businesses and advertisers are anxious to tap into the power of social networks. The social networks are building huge audiences but can't figure out how to monetize them. When they learn how to connect effectively the benefits will be amazing for everyone involved.

This is a business problem, not a technology problem. The answer will be simple and obvious. In fact, it has probably already been considered and rejected several times. Someone will come along and put a slightly different twist on it and...Eureka!!!  Don't you just love business? How do you think this will play out?

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Why do Fast Followers often beat the First Mover innovators?

Innovation drives our industry, attracts the best talent,  attracts VC money, and wins fame for its leaders. Innovation leaders burst onto the scene, win early market leadership, but sometimes can't sustain the pace. Why do "fast followers" often jump in later and make fortunes? Is management responsible for the success or failure? Or, are these innovation leaders acquired by larger players before they have a chance to evolve into successful stand alone companies?

I have been on the leading edge, sometimes bleeding edge, of technology for most of my career. I have been fortunate to be part of start-up teams that have created "first-of-its-kind" innovations at companies like Forte Software, AltaVista, Napster, Bowstreet, and Groove Networks. All of these companies were first in their field, yet few of them realized the financial rewards one would expect. Is it all timing and luck? I don't think so.

Before exploring the reasons for success or failure lets review a list of innovation leaders and fast followers.

• AltaVista -> Google
• Napster -> iTunes
• VisiCalc -> Lotus 123 -> Excel
• Word Perfect -> Word
• Netscape -> Internet Explorer
• Apple Newton -> Palm Pilot -> Blackberry
• IBM PC -> Compaq -> Dell
• Double Click -> Google Ad Sense
• Ofoto -> Flickr
• Compuserve -> AOL -> @Home -> Comcast & Verizon
• Nintendo –> Xbox
• Friendster –> Facebook
• Blackberry –> iPhone

All of these companies were innovation leaders and market leaders. Yet, they were eclipsed by fast followers, in some cases multiple times, who imitated their innovation. My belief is that the technology was outstanding...the management was not.

Clayton Christensen wrote The Innovators Dilemma which I reviewed in an earlier post. The basic premise of the book is that management optimizes around protecting their existing business and fails to recognize and react to disruptive threats. However, the examples in Christensen's book play out over 10 or 20 years. The above examples played out in 5 or less years. Are the same factors at work here? Lets take a look.

AltaVista was the first search engine and the clear technology leader. The management at DEC didn't understand what they had and didn't invest the necessary resources to make it a business success. Later Compaq and CMGI squandered the search opportunity and tried to imitate Yahoo, Excite, Lycos, and AOL in the consumer portal game. Big mistake. Fault management.

Napster was the first P2P file sharing application to bring together search, FTP, and Instant Messaging. Brilliant technical synergy. There are lots of reasons for failure here, mostly management decisions and unfortunate timing.

VisiCalc was the first spreadsheet, invented by Dan Bricklin and Bob Frankston. I know Dan fairly well but have never asked him why he thinks VisiCalc fell behind and Excel moved ahead. This topic deserves its own post. My memory is that VisiCalc was slow to adopt the DOS platform. Lotus 123 moved ahead on DOS and achieved market leadership, but failed to jump onto the Windows platform fast enough. Excel did make the move and the rest is history.

IBM created the PC revolution and was the early leader. Compaq was a fast follower focusing on "transportable" PCs and won huge market share. Dell came in later and trounced them all with a better business model.

Compuserve was the first dial-up service provider. Together with Prodigy they dominated the market. Later AOL entered the game with superior marketing and original content. AOL absolutely dominated in the 80's and early 90's. Then @Home created the cable Internet market and took the early lead. It wasn't long before Verizon, Comcast, and other cable providers owned the broadband market. AOL never really made the transition from dial-up to broadband.

In nearly every case the early innovators were eclipsed by fast followers. Why did the fast followers take over market share leadership?

• Better business model (Google, Ad Sense, Dell)
• Better market position (Word, Excel, Comcast, Verizon)
• Better timing (iTunes, Flickr)
• Better platform choices (Blackberry, Word, Excel)
• Better management (all the fast followers)

It is overly simplistic to pin the success or failure of these innovators on one factor. There were a combination of factors at work. But in most cases the problem was not inferior technology, it was inferior management decisions.

So, were these early innovators led by technical visionaries who were not good managers? Will the imitators  and "fast followers" suffer the same fate and be overtaken by new fast followers?

The list of "fast followers" above are more than just imitators. They have continued to innovate far beyond the original idea or feature set and have maintained market leadership. If you look closely at these companies they have a  mix of technical visionaries and business management leaders. I discussed this with Robert Scoble who pointed out that it takes a different set of skills to start a company than it does to sustain a company. This balance of skills, I think, is the key to sustained market leadership.

Cisco is an example of an early innovator that kept their market leadership position over time. Their technical founders brought in professional managers to take them to the next level.

There is a rare breed of technical visionaries who are also great business leaders. Bill Gates, Gordon Moore, Larry Ellison, and Scott McNealy are examples. They are truly extraordinary and rare. However, I suspect that each of them has a strong business management team behind them. Bill Gates has Steve Ballmer. Larry Ellison had Ray Lane. The early innovators who failed did not have the business leadership necessary to sustain them.

Lessons for entrepreneurs;

• Never stop innovating
• Build a well rounded management team early
• Value sales and marketing talent as much as technical talent
• React quickly to disruptive technologies or business models
• Don't be too proud to imitate when it makes sense

NOTE: This is a reprint of a story I wrote four years ago.  I thought I would reprint it for the benefit of new readers of this blog.

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Why VCs say no 99% of the time

Venture Capital investing is a very tough game...and very lucrative if you are good at it. Part of my job at Microsoft is working with VCs, so I have learned a lot about the way they think...and why they say No to 99% of the deals they see.

This blog post by Jeff Bussgang, of Flybridge Capital Partners explains why VCs want to see every new startup...but say no 99% of the time.

"As one wise old VC once told me, "the trick in this business is to spend very little time on a lot of deals, and then a lot of time on very few deals."  In other words, see everything to be a better investor, but exert a very tough first filter so that you only spend time on very, very few deals.  In my experience, a typical VC has the bandwidth to actively "spend time" or actively work on only one to two deals at any given time and perhaps 10-20 in a year -- as compared to those 300-500 they get exposed to."

What are the odds? - VCs are exposed to about 500 opportunities a year. They spend time seriously looking at about 20 companies a year, and invest in two or three. So, they say no about 99% of the time.

We all say no 99% of the time - I would guess that every one of you reading this blog have a stock portfolio with 5 to 10 individual stocks or mutual funds. There are more than 5,000 publicly listed companies to choose from, and another 5,000 mutual funds. But, out of 10,000 possible companies you chose 10 to invest in. Why? Why did you reject the other 9,990 companies? Obviously there are more than 10 good companies to invest in. Other investors chose to invest their money in the other 9,990 companies...why not you?

We invest in people we know and companies we understand - We do this in our own personal investing, and VCs, with rare exceptions, do the same when they make decisions. We all say no 99% of the time, and we reject perfectly good companies, but we invest in things we feel comfortable with.

Find the right VC match - Don't be too quick to change your strategy or company pitch just because the first batch of VCs rejects it. It is all about finding the right VC that is interested in what you are doing and comfortable in the market space. Don't waste time trying to convince a reluctant VC. Move on and spend the time finding the right VC for you...that "gets it" the first time. There are at least 1,000 VCs in the USA. They all have different investment tastes...just like all of us do. Go for it!

For more information on how to raise money from VCs see the Microsoft StartupZone Resource section.

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Boston startup events

Boston has a vibrant startup community with lots of events to connect with VCs, Angels, and other startups. Here are several events for the coming weeks.

Xsite:2009 The Recovery Starts Here – June 24, 8:00AM – Organized by Xconomy. High-tech, life-sciences, and energy innovation may well hold the key to the nation's economic health and long-term competitiveness. And as a hotbed of American innovation, New England is poised to become a key driver of economic recovery in the U.S.

What’s Next In Tech – Exploring The Growth Opportunities of 2009 And Beyond – June 25, 6:00PM - Organized and hosted by Scott Kirsner. Register now for just $60.00. Whether you're starting a business, investing, or looking for your next career opportunity, you won't want to miss this jam-packed evening of networking and conversation. Led by a stellar group of entrepreneurs and venture capitalists, we'll separate hype from reality -- and explore which technology areas are actually growing and creating big opportunities for the future.

The Convergence of Video and TV – July 8, 6:00PM – Organized by MITX - Who will be the true benefactors in this new video ecosystem and how can marketers take advantage of this trend?

Understanding The Dilution Impact of Early Stage Investment – July 14, 12:00PM – Organized by The Capital Network

WebInno – Boston Web Innovators – July 15, 6:30PM – Organized by David Beisel of Venrock

Tech Tuesday - is a regular monthly meet-up organized by Dan Bricklin, of Visi-Calc spreadsheet fame. Tech Tuesday is for geeks, tech savvy professionals, DIY-ers, press, and other industry luminaries for an informal gathering.

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This Week In Startups – Q&A

This Week In Startups is a weekly webcast hosted by Jason Calacanis that takes questions from startups, and discusses news events of the day. Jason asked me to be a guest on the show link to the video. The questions were great issues for all startups so it makes sense to share them here.

The show starts with Jason asking me questions about Microsoft, Bing, Zune, and other issues. The show went on for two hours…all of it compelling and  insightful :-), but here is a guide to the questions and time marks.

How do I get VC or Angel funding for my business? Investors expect an exit or sale to get their return. But, I don’t want to ever sell the business. Can I get financed? (13:50 mark) This particular business was a newspaper so the answer was slightly different than it would be for a software or web company, but many of the issues are the same for any company.

How do I price sponsorships for my new web site? How do advertisers measure the value of sponsorships? Can I raise the price later? (27:00 mark) Jason uses his own show as an example of how to price sponsorships and how to create value for sponsors.

Our project started out as a 50/50 partnership, but now my partner has lost interest and isn’t working much on it. Technically he owns 50%. How do I work this out so I can move forward and develop the idea? (38:15 mark) This sort of thing happens all the time but you don’t read much about it because it usually gets worked out…or the business just dissolves. Jason and I offered several approaches to working this problem out, and suggested a simple legal agreement to handle this kind of thing.

My CEO has committed us to a program that I don’t agree with. I think it is a big mistake. What should I do about it? (52:00 mark) This was an interesting question. Jason gave some great advice that made the caller really think about his position. I suggested that this happens all the time in startups, and there are usually lots of strategy and product changes before they get it right. Don’t get hung up on one decision. There are rarely obvious right answers, and always incomplete information to make them.

How should we pick a lawyer for our startup? How much should we expect to pay? (62:40 mark) Again, Jason had great advice. My response can be summarized as, don’t hire your cousin Vinny. Get a lawyer that specializes in startups.

We don’t need to raise money, but we would like to have an Angel investor as an advisor. How do we find the right person? What type of relationship and deal should we propose? (66:55 mark) Again, great advice. This is a common question and really important.

The news of the week included iPhone 3GS, MySpace, Twitter, and other topical issues. (76:00 mark)

Jason Calacanis does a great job on This Week In Startups, a great resource for anyone starting and building a company. The show is LIVE every Friday at 1:00PM PST, and is available for streaming later.

Microsoft StartupZone also has great advice for startups and the BizSpark software program for startups.

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How to get funding from VCs and Angels

Last week I talked with a young first time entrepreneur looking for funding. He didn’t know where to start. I pointed him to Microsoft StartupZone where there is LOTS of great information from Guy Kawasaki, Brad Feld, Paul Graham, Ann Winblad, Ron Conway, and others about how to get funded.

There are over 50 fact filled articles covering topics like;

• What to consider when raising money
• How to raise money from VCs
• Term sheet terms – what they mean
• How to find Angel Investors
• Business models that work
• The Pitch – How to write an effective presentation
• Writing a Business Plan
• Creating a Financial Model

Getting a meeting – Once you have learned everything about how to put together a great pitch, business plan, and understand how much you need, the next step is getting a meeting with an investor. The best way to get the first meeting is to get referred by someone the VC knows. Someone like a former entrepreneur, board member, another VC, one of your advisors, etc. The chances of a first time entrepreneur getting a meeting without an introduction from a trusted advisor are very small.

How to handle the first meeting

1. Send a PowerPoint presentation of about 10 slides that describes the problem you solve,  who your potential customers are, who your competitors are, the business model, the team, potential market size, how much money you need, and a plan with major milestones.
2. Be flexible and responsive, and don't expect the same from the VC. VCs are very busy people and are easily distracted. Be flexible about the meeting agenda. Respond to questions immediately. Do not make them wait until later in the presentation.
3. Research what kinds of companies the VC has funded in the past. Connect with any people you know at those companies. Get insight into how the VC works, and get a referral to the VC.

Here are some things to avoid when meeting with VCs

1. Don't use the latest buzzwords. This drives VCs crazy. Focus on the problem you solve for customers. Use real scenarios, not hypothetical web2.0 dreams.
2. Don't spend lots of time explaining "how" you do it. They don't care about the technical details. Explain what problem you solve for customers.
3. Don't avoid the competitor question. If you don't have competitors then you don't have a big market, or the problem you are trying to solve doesn't exist. If the problem does exist than customers have figured out some way to deal with it. Show that you understand how they are dealing with it today.
4. Don't be arrogant, and don't bluff answers. If you don't know, don't guess. Tell them you will get back to them.
5. Don't diss the competition. Respect the competition and anticipate what their reaction will be to your entry into the market.
6. Don't ask for an NDA. Don't think you are the only person to ever have this idea. Don't worry about VCs stealing your idea. They throw away hundreds of good ideas every year because the timing isn't right, the team isn't right, or the business model isn't right

Can newspapers be saved? from themselves?

Newspapers are in deep trouble. You don’t read much about it, perhaps because newspapers aren’t keen to report on their own demise. The Boston Globe, my local newspaper, lost $50M last year and is projected to lose $85M this year. The New York Times, owner of the Boston Globe, has threatened to shut down the newspaper unless labor unions agree to $20M in cuts. Three of the four unions agreed, however the Boston Newspaper Guild rejected the deal last night.

PaperCuts, a website that covers the U.S. newspaper industry, says over 100 newspapers have shut down completely, and over 26,000 jobs have been cut in the last 18 months. Sun-Times Media, owner of 58 newspapers including the Chicago Sun Times is in bankruptcy. So is the Los Angeles Times, and many others.

What went wrong? A perfect storm; classified ads devastated by Monster.com and craigslist, steadily declining subscription sales, and an economic recession that has reduced all forms of advertising. This perfect storm has been building for years, but the indicators were rationalized away as one time events, a normal business cycle, or, at worst, a manageable problem. This is a sadly common reaction. We have seen US auto makers, the music industry, and the home mortgage industry, all fail to react to fairly obvious warning signs.

Dinosaurs didn’t die because they were too big, they died because they were too slow to adapt. Businesses in distress usually cut expenses and headcount in an attempt to save themselves. It is usually too little, too late. They become smaller versions of their former selves…but with the same fundamental problems. They think they have made the tough decisions that will allow them to move forward and regain their former success. But, all they did was buy themselves a little more time. The inconvenient truth is that the world changed, they didn’t adapt quickly enough, and now the required changes are so severe they can’t bear to implement them. What follows is a slow death spiral, lots of finger pointing and blame, but very little introspection and learning.

Top executives of the major American newspapers had a secret meeting in Chicago last week to map out a strategy for preserving the newspaper industry. The meeting focused on two major issues; how to enforce copyrights to protect their content, and how to extract revenue from web sites, their own and others. The basic idea was to erect pay walls around newspaper content, file lawsuits against any web site that “used” their content, and demand a percentage of revenue from sites like Google News and others.

Will this work? Probably not, and it is probably illegal. That is why newspapers are lobbying congress to change the copyright laws, and trying to get antitrust exemptions for themselves. The reality is that getting 100% of newspapers to agree on and implement any strategy is impossible. The other reality is that consumers have so many other choices for free news…pay walls will not be successful.

Is there any hope for newspapers? Probably not for the Boston Globe, but for others, yes, absolutely. But, they must be strong enough to survive the transformation, and courageous enough to implement it. Every newspaper is different, but they all have some common problems and opportunities. What can they do?

• Cut costs. Adapt to the new reality and cost structure. Classified advertising dollars are never coming back. Get used to it. Adjust the cost structure. This doesn’t solve the problem, but it does buy time to implement the solution.
• Focus on local news. Things like schools, businesses, events, and local people. Local news is unique. National news is a commodity available from hundreds of sources for free. Local news matters to local people and isn’t available anywhere else. People will buy subscriptions, and advertisers will pay to get access to them.
• Expand online presence. Go deep with local news. Include lots of stories that aren’t popular enough to “print” in the paper but are of interest to people in the community. The long tail.
• Use social media. Allow local bloggers, school students, and business leaders to post stories, pictures, and comments to the newspaper web site. Provide a space where local people can build a community. Newspapers should be at the hub of that community.
• Create new revenue sources. Sell premium content online, such as in-depth reports on sports teams, how-to reports for spring gardening, premium wine reviews for Spring varietals, etc.

Journalism is more important and valued than ever before. We get more news from more sources now so that reliance on newspapers is a thing of the past. If newspapers don’t adapt quickly, they too will join the dinosaurs as a thing of the past.

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Rajeev Motwani professor, angel investor, good guy, has passed

Rajeev Motwani died suddenly Friday June 5th at the age of 47, from apparent drowning. Rajeev was a professor at Stanford and an angel investor in PayPal and Google among others. He was well known in Silicon Valley, always willing to offer advice to startups and entrepreneurs.

Rajeev will be sadly missed. “To those who knew him, no explanation is necessary... To those who didn't, no explanation is possible..." Bradley Horowitz

Here is a photo of Rajeev Motwani (1st left) at an Angel Investor dinner organized by Microsoft. Pictured from left to right: Rajeev Motwani, Eric Benhamou, Don Dodge, Paul Graham, Fritz Lanman.

Bing gets real-time search with OneRiot

The real-time web is heating-up. Angel investor Ron Conway told Mike Arrington at TechCrunch that he will invest in 40 to 50 companies focused on real-time data in the next 18 months. Twitter, Facebook, blogs, podcasts, and news sites are generating tons of social content every hour.

During his SMX Keynote today, Microsoft’s head of search Qi Lu said "Bing as a product took a very distinct different approach. What we would like to offer is rich and more organized user experience so we enable users to complete tasks more efficiently and make more informed decisions faster." Qi Lu noted “Recency and freshness is becoming increasingly important.”

OneRiot, a startup in Boulder, Co. saw this trend and built a real-time search engine that uses Twitter feeds and their own client web tracker to produce real-time search results. Two other innovative startups, WebMynd and Surf Canyon, worked quickly to customize Bing with real-time search results powered by OneRiot. Surf Canyon CEO, Mark Cramer, said that they are excited about this integration because “Bing users can now re-rank search results ‘on the fly’ plus get OneRiot’s real-time web results to further transform Bing search results into dynamic portals of information.”

Microsoft also worked with OneRiot to create IE8 Optimized Browsers for the Real-Time Web. Microsoft has kept close ties with OneRiot, a real-time search engine company, since they launched in November 2008. You can install WebMynd and SurfCanyon IE8 browser extensions to get customized search results on the side with the hottest shares online right now from OneRiot. Another cool way to use Bing, gotta love it!

Tobias Peggs, general manager at OneRiot, said that the company was honored to be a part of this push toward the real-time web, “It's a big vote of confidence in our approach to index the web, the unique search results we return, and our ability to scale."

The IE8 Optimized Browser for the Real-Time web comes loaded with OneRiot Search, a ‘Most Shared Web Slice’ and a very cool ‘Top Videos Web Slice’ which basically gives you the hottest stuff online right inside the IE8 browser.  Get the goodies here: http://ieaddons.com/en/browsers/OneRiot+Browser/

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Bing the right information to make decisions

Bing is Microsoft’s new search decision engine that gives you the right information to make the right decisions. Bing TV ads (hat tip to Peter Kafka) hit the air today, the first of many. The ad is really good, upbeat, like the PC Hunter ads. But, Steve Wozniak, cofounder of Apple, provides the best ad ever, and it wasn’t even an ad…just an impromptu interview. And, The Wall Street Journal (Katherine Boehret and Walt Mossberg) did a great review of Bing. Glowing reports from Steve Wozniak, Walt Mossberg, and the Wall Street Journal are better than any TV ad, but both are great.

Here is a link to the Steve Wozniak interview where he says “That was the most astounding software demo I've every seen," “I thought it was going to be all marketing and sales pitch…I was really impressed.” “I have been begging for this stuff for years” Take a minute and watch this interview with the Woz.

The Wall Street Journal says “I've been using Bing for more than two weeks now, and this search engine really did retrieve on-target, useful information on the first try. But what I like best about it is that it does so in a user-friendly manner that looks and feels more inviting than Google.”

Bing really shines in four main areas, Travel, Shopping, Health, and finding a local business. Microsoft acquired Farecast, a company that tracks and predicts air fares, and has integrated it into Bing travel search. When you do a Bing travel search it will advise on buying the ticket now, or waiting for the price to go down further. See the screen shot at right.

Bing shopping search helps you find the products you want, complete with pictures, prices, and cash back on your purchases. Anywhere from 2% to 15% cash back on things you buy. Hey, you were going to buy it anyway…why not get cash back by using Bing Shopping search? I found a 46 inch LCD TV for $1406, and a 6% cash back offer. That is $84.36 cash back on one search/purchase.

 

A search for Type 2 Diabetes brings back excellent, relevant results, and includes an “Explore pane” on the left side. It lets you drill down on; Symptoms, Diet, Medication, Prevention, Blood Tests, and Images. It also includes related searches like; Diabetes Symptoms, Diabetes Sample Diet, Diabetes Cure, and others. Related Searches and Search Suggestions have been around for a while as an option, but very few people knew where to find the options and how to select them. Bing does it automatically. It will be interesting to see how many people use them.

A Bing search for a local business returns a map with all the locations, address, telephone numbers, maps, and directions. The cool thing about the directions is that it gives you landmarks along the way like “Exxon station on the corner”, and lets you know if you went too far “If you pass Maple Street, you have gone too far”. Pretty cool.

 

 Bing Image search is awesome. You can scroll down and see hundreds of images. No need to hit the “Next Page” button. They just appear as you scroll down. Mouse over an image and it enlarges before your eyes, and presents the URL and meta data. I did a search for Demi Moore and scrolled through over 700 images in a few seconds. Awesome!! Try it, you will be hooked. The image search also includes an “Explore pane” on the left side. It lets you drill down on Images, Movies, Wallpaper, Posters, Fan Club, Videos, etc. The explore pane changes dynamically based on the search term.

Bing video search returns thumb nail images like other search engines. But, mouse over an image and the video starts playing right there in the search pane. No need to click away, or waste time watching a video you don’t really want. Preview it right in the search results page.

There are lots of other new features in Bing. Some are subtle features that save time, others just improve the experience. Try Bing. You will be surprised…pleasantly surprised.

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