The Logics

Over a year ago I had mentioned on one of my pages that the MSN® search engine appeared to be undergoing changes. The result was the new Bing® search engine. If you have not seen the new home page of Bing, take a minute and go look.

Google® remains the most widely used search engine, and there will always be favor with Google’s width of data bases, as well as Google’s high speed and minimalist footprint, but Bing reflects a specific quality that (to my knowledge) is currently only found in Microsoft® products.

Several years back I had written about the differences in the numerous word processors, and that though those like OpenOfficeorg® and WordPerfect® are definitely good products, MS Word® remained the single choice because of its quality of text display. For those of us who may spend eight to twelve hours a day typing, Microsoft’s clear type smoothing of fonts is a necessity that many of us will not forfeit just because a different word processor might be less expensive or have a few features that Word does not have.

In the field of web design it is easily observed that the majority of layouts are aimed at the younger audiences who prefer television-like animated displays, which is a good thing because everyone of every age bracket should enjoy their time online. Only a relatively small percentage of web designs are aimed more for individuals with a maturity of experience in academics, arts, and sciences. The Logics has been one of my attempts to experiment with and to learn what type of layout might suggest of itself to be mature and of an above average base of topical knowledge. The site still needs a complete rewrite along with a new layout, but the site has been a good start and learning experience. The newer Ethics website is currently receiving a rewrite, which once finished is hoped to possess an improved sense of design, balance, and maturity. (The difficult thing for me with the Ethics site is that it is intended to raise questions within the reader, not give answers to be memorized, and it is not an easy thing for me to keep some of my most favored thoughts unspoken.)

The new Bing home page is a useful compromise between minimalism and animation, and repeatedly I have opined to myself that Bing has a desirable quality that I at present can only term as mature, intelligent, and very much experienced. For many years I have wondered if Microsoft hires experts in psychology and graphic design who choose how the finished products will appear on the screen, but whoever it is that has the final say, I believe that they have done very well with Bing.

I want Google to stay like it is – fast, small, and very useful – and I suspect Yahoo may soon have a new design now that Microsoft controls Yahoo (perhaps more minimalist than Google?), but I do like Bing’s look, and it is something that is rarely found online: classy smart.

All three of the search engines may give different results when searching for a topic, with each of the search engines often providing a different quality of websites that match the keywords. Which search engine is best? I say use all three, and enjoy finding something new each day, like Bing’s home page.