If you work in digital media you'd have to have been living under a rock for the past few weeks to not have heard about Microsoft's re-branded search offering, Bing.  So called because Microsoft believes it represents "the sound of found" (yes, quite), it seems everyone loves to talk about a potential Google killer and so it's no surprise to see that the PR machine has gone into over-drive once again with numerous features appearing in both the mainstream and specialist press.

Worst coverage of all came in the form of NMA's story last week, quoting research carried out by supposed news portal One News Page that stated that 55% of consumers plan to replace Google with Bing as their main search tool and (be warned, this one takes the biscuit) 90% would use the term "to bing it" as a term for searching the web.  Shame on NMA on two counts.  Firstly for printing such clearly ludicrous statistics without any kind of critique - seriously, 90% of people will say they are going to "bing it"?  Even though that is 35% more than the number of people that plan to use it?  Even worse is the fact that they have taken statistics from a site that is little more than a holding page - they claim to be a news aggregator but the fact they don't show up in comScore suggests they don't see significant enough traffic volumes to carry out the kind of survey needed to make these statements.

Before I start with the vitriol then there are a few things to note.  Bing isn't all bad - it's certainly a step in the right direction and they represent more of a threat to Google than anyone else at present.  However if they are to challenge their dominance in any way they have to address the following obstacles:

1. It's ugly. Don't get me wrong, Google is hardly an oil painting but that logo is horrendous. The images on the homepage are a good idea - the kind of thing that will have casual users setting it as their homepage just to see something new each day - but the execution is all wrong due to the central placement of the homepage. When a user actually searches for something the tabs and navigation all suddenly become left-aligned - it's a minor thing but it's jarring. The dead space around the images just seems like a wasted opportunity too. Why not expand the images so they fill the whole page, giving a much richer, colourful experience? Instead they have a homepage that feels dated already.

2. The timing of the launch was fumbled. I've already mentioned that there's been loads of press coverage but, for reasons best known to Microsoft, the full product won't be rolled out across Europe for six months yet, giving us a skinny version instead whilst the local teams catch-up. The result is that everyone goes to visit the site before the full functionality of the US version is here and write it off as nothing but a name change. The advertising dollars will now have to work twice as hard when Bing comes out of Beta in the UK and the competition will have had six months to catch up - if someone in Redmond is reading, feel free to give us a call if you need help with this!

3. Google are rapidly surpassing Microsoft even in their intended areas of strength. With Google Options and Squared announced literally weeks before Bing any thought leadership Microsoft would have had has already been diminished.

4. Bing isn't social. With access to Passport login data Microsoft have a clear advantage over Google in the social space - they know much better who you are and who your friends are. Why not use that information? Show me the restaurants my friends are more likely to click on. Let me ‘Bing' sites I like so my friends can see them.

5. They just don't get the audience. Microsoft claim to be targeting power searchers with Bing and it is understandable why - it's an audience containing 30% of searchers that are responsible for more than 50% of searches - but they just don't understand the audience. The images on the homepage are great for a casual audience but power users are likely to use a browser based search box. Microsoft's answer to this is to develop additional functionality in IE8 but who exactly are they kidding? We all know that they need to be targeting Firefox to win this audience.

So what do people think - does anyone have any thoughts on why Bing represents a serious challenger to Google's dominance?