Everything in Bing is excellent except for their searching algorithms. Which, in a search engine, is kind of important I'd say.

I really like Yahoo too, but for some reason everytime I need to find something I instinctively type "www.google.com" instead of "www.yahoo.com". I'm a victim of advertising

Everyone is a victim of that... it's everywhere you look and serves mostly to make the rich richer.

I block/ignore advertising when/where ever possible... yet I have all that I need and a lot of what I want.

How???  I get into the stores and research the products I want/need.  In-store comparisons serve me well enough, so I have no need of advertising telling me which products I should or shouldn't buy... or from where.

What kind of innovations need to be done? Search has always been ridiculously simple: A search box and a button to start the search.

It's awfully hard to be innovative when the best form of the product is the KISS principle taken to its logical conclusion.

The only thing they can really do is to very carefully add features in a way that dosn't distract people from the search box.

I think Bing is finally a good step forward in providing Google with some real competition.

Their search results are finally decent, the new features are nice an innovative without being too distracting, and it looks a lot more professional.

I'd still give Google the edge when it comes to searching for computer related troubleshooting stuff, though. When I'm looking for error messages, it does seem Google gets more results. Especially in really edge cases where there are very few results.

But - I'm a big fan of competition, and firmly believe that competition encourages innovation. I think it's great that Google has some decent competition.

Quick, type the below text into google and then bing and tell me what you get:

integrate (exp(x^2)*sin(x))

And then try these in both for good measure:

plot (x^2+y^2)

gradient (x^2+y^2)

Bing's Compute answer didn't link me anywhere, which is pretty useless for me 

Well I'll be darned PB, you're right.  It looks like the compute link can be balky if you try and enter it from quick-search bars and/or paste it in instead of typing it.  (no idea why).  So -1 point to MS.  If Google will ever integrate , I'll switch back over.

I have no real overriding preference but I like Bing just based on the random pics and info it shows me on the front page.  I learn things.  Things I may not actually care about, but they're interesting nonetheless.

When I'm trying to find things that aren't relatively easy to find, I usually prefer using Google.  Maybe I'm just more used to it.

ROFL!!!

One of the result on the first page of Google search have lead me to http://integrals.wolfram.com/index.jsp?expr=Exp[x^2]*sin[x]&random=false ... these online integrator seem to be great and it is now a bookmark in my browser...

These first result have lead me to http://www.wolframalpha.com/

Have try your "plot (x^2+y^2)"... result is  http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=plot+(x^2%2By^2) ... work too with the gradient...

If Google have lead me to a site who give me the perfect result and that i can boolmark these site for future use, why do i need to use Bing ? I have try it but no link in the first page lead to something interesting...

So use Bing for your integration/graphing needs and Google for everything else...

Thoumsin has proved by indusputable win that Google is better.

Google= EPIC WIN!! Bing= FAIL!! Better than EPIC FAIL!!!!!!, but still FAIL stamped.

Because the site Google linked you to, www.wolframalpha.com, is going to be integrated into Bing: http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/11/microsofts-bing-xwolframalpha-google/ So you won't need the middle-man, just type it into Bing.

To be honest, i don't like it when Microsoft integrate something... if it work good, the next step will be microsoft buying wolframalpha... leading to the usual situation where the tool will not more be upgraded... and if the tool is a big success, soon of later, people will need to pay for use it...

Microsoft don't invent anymore... it is a big money machine who eat everything interesting for their own benefice... soon, for use the wolframalpha, it will be "with Microsoft internet explorer only" or a option activated for a fee...

More bad is that bing have a regional censorship system included who result in some regions... by example, it is activated in Germany if you make a search with the word $ex !!!! censorship is not something that i wish in my web search engine, unless i activate it myself ( by example, for protect my children )...

Google just become far to overrun with ads and misleading revenue driven search results. I;ve switched to bing beccause its better and far less bloated. Although time will only tell how long it can stay away from the abyss google has recently fallen into , just like every other search engine. 

Microsoft has a part called "Microsoft Research" where they invent and research looots of things. If you look at some of the most important conferences in the world, there are several papers from Microsoft nearly all years (SIGGRAPH, SIGCHI,...).