Bing, built on a tradition of high-performance and speed
Over the weekend, I believe I may have discovered some of the earliest roots of Bing and how it came to be the high-performance decision engine that it is today, with speed at the core of it's heritage (and why Bing continues its momentum in gaining market share). So how and where was I able to make this discovery? For those of you that know me well, one of the things you know about me is that I love fast cars and auto racing. It was through this love of racing, while attending the World of Outlaws event at Calistoga Speedway in California, that I think I was able to uncover what could be the roots of Bing and a legacy of high performance engines and speed in the very early versions that has today manifested itself in a world class solution.
As a side note, if you aren’t familiar with the World of Outlaws racing, let me sum it up this way: picture a tiny race car with two wings mounted to the front & top of the car to help keep it on the ground, due to having a 900+ horsepower engine attached to the tubular frame. Plus, unlike other motorsports where you drive through a corner on concrete or asphalt, in Outlaw racing, you’re on a dirt track and as you come flying into the corner (100+ mph), you crank the wheels to the left and hit the throttle, which launches the rear of the car out to the side, catapulting the car into a sideways drift around the corner, balancing delicately on the edge of control and chaos. Now picture doing this with numerous other cars trying to do the exact same thing just feet, if not inches, away from you. Yes, quite often that border of control and chaos is crossed, then you see cars tumbling down the track and piled up in the corners around the track. Here’s a picture of one of these cars from this weekend to give you a perspective of what they look like today:
| Anyway, back to the heritage of Bing… While at the track on Saturday night, we were walking around the outside of the track where all of the displays, etc. are and there it was, Bing’s long-time past (going back generations) with a glimpse into the future design of the search engine today: Bing built on a powerful engine, designed for high-speed performance (maybe this was Beta #.0005). We’re talking raw power with a focus on performance and results! |  |
Now in the true sprit of transparency, yes, I put this post up truly for fun and in no way as an “official” background into anything having to do with the design of Bing. But you have to ask yourself, is it just coincidence that the Bing history dates back to high-performance and speed and today’s Bing is delivering this for people around the world with similar design principles (powerful engine, high-performance, etc.)? Just sayin’… 
By the way, let’s see how many true race fans we have out there with a quick trivia question for you, and I’ll even allow for two separate answers as correct:
- Question: What is the difference between tailgating and drafting?
- Answer(s): Click here to see if you are correct.
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Thank you and have a wonderful day,
Eric Ligman – Follow me on TWITTER, LinkedIn, and RSS and see “What I’m thinking”
Global Partner Experience Lead
Microsoft Worldwide Partner Group
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights
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