Microsoft's Bing App Trumps Google Mobile

Tonight, Microsoft surprised us with their Bing app for the iPhone. Apart from being much more impressive than the Google Mobile app, its 'rebel' UI is a welcoming breath of fresh air. It has many tricks up its sleeve and actually makes it worthwhile to have a standalone search app rather than just using Safari directly. Here is a full review of all the features.

When the app first launches, you will immediately notice that the interface departs from the standard iPhone GUI and is much more "windows-like" with translucent overlays for menus, buttons and tabs. The app uses interactive images as the background (which change daily) with 'hot' spots that you can touch to bring up informative facts and tidbits.

The app is extremely fast and surprisingly has a lot of features packed inside. Microsoft obviously did their research and the result is a rock solid app. Taking lessons from Google, Bing App allows you to search via voice by either pressing the microphone button or raising the iPhone to your ear. Sadly, we found Bing's voice search to be less accurate than Google's.

Unlike the Google Mobile App, before you begin, you can first filter searches by Images, Movies, Maps, Businesses, News and Directions. If you use the keyboard to enter a search, Bing's recommendation engine brings up suggestions as you type. The search results are nicely formatted into categories such as 'Web', 'Businesses', 'Images', 'News' and 'Suggestions'.

On the home screen, click on the 'Movies' button to bring up a list of movies "now playing" in theaters near to you. You can read the movie synopsis, see ratings and call/get directions to any theater at which it is showing.

Image searches are laid out in a fluid grid and you can choose to view the full size image or go to the page where it is located. As you flick down, images are seamlessly loaded on the fly.

If you select 'Businesses', you can choose a category such as 'nightlife' which then brings up more filters such as 'Night Clubs' and 'Karaoke' which will in turn list all the matching businesses in your location. You can quickly see ratings and reviews for each business and call or get directions there.

If you select News, you immediately see the latest stories grouped by the following categories - US, World, Local, Business, Politics, Entertainment, Sports, Science and Technology and Health.

If you select Directions, the app automatically suggests your current location (you can change) and you enter a destination manually or choose a contact from your Address Book.

Bing does not at any point open any windows in mobile Safari. The app has it's very own mini-browser! Don't try browsing like this however as it is extremely slow and pages seem to be rendered through Microsoft's servers then pushed to the iPhone rather than being handled locally. there is a home button and navigation buttons at the bottom.

Bing does not at any point link to the default Maps app. In fact, the app is tightly integrated with Bing Maps. Your searches will bring up local results and if an address is available you can get driving/walking directions directly from within the app. The maps feature also allows you factor in live traffic delays with your directions.

Now the app isn't without its shortcomings. For example, the UI does not easily adapt to the orientation of the phone and ends up breaking sometimes. The voice control also needs improved accuracy and faster processing and loading times. All in all, this is a pretty good first release and we look forward to many improvements to come. Bing is Microsoft's third app for the iPhone following Seadragon and Microsoft Tags which they released earlier this year. All apps are available for free in the App Store. [iTunes Link]