When the newest Microsoft browser hit the Internet, I ignored it. Why bing when I already had both Google and Yahoo at my fingertips?

Not that I'm a good example.  Anyone who knows me can tell you I'm anything but avant garde in my approach to new technology. Don't get me wrong; I'm no Luddite. But I am a proponent of the "If it ain't broke, don't fix it" school of thought regarding pretty much anything, and that includes competition in a market long dominated by Google with the leavings picked up by Yahoo. MSN? Ask Jeeves? Search King? (Okay, I'm dating myself now.)

What finally got me to take a look at the new kid was the fact that Pam and I now live off grid. We love it, have done it before, and it's by far our preferred lifestyle. There are challenges, though, one being that Internet access options are few and far between. In Colorado, I used Comcast and was well satisfied with their service. In Montana, it was Bresnan. Both cable companies, an occasional service interruption here and there, but smokin' speed and no bandwidth restrictions.

Enter satellite Internet, stage right. We can only choose between Wild Blue and Hughes, both of which provide service...of a sort. I went with Hughes for a number of reasons, but either provider presents a serious problem if you're online a lot: The customer is not allowed to use a whole lot of bandwidth for either uploading or downloading. At best the speed is a fraction of that available through cable. At worst, the Hughes computers decide you're "stealing" more than you should and freeze your entire computer. To "rest and reset" requires a full day, sometimes as much as two. If they think you've gone too far, they'll simply boot you as a customer entirely, and you're dead in the water with a hole in the hull.

So: I "done said all that to say all this": When I did finally get around to trying Bing as a search engine, my jaw dropped. That thing is fast!

Note: While searching for a photo that portrayed pure speed, I came across an incredible site full of photos specializing in cool shots of retired-and-adopted greyhounds. If The Simpsons can adopt Santa's Little Helper, perhaps you can spare a few seconds to check out this pro-greyhound site. I got "lost", drifting through the extensive photo gallery, and had to slap myself to get back to work.

• Now: For several weeks, I used Bing exclusively for Internet searches whenever Hughes had my speed down below "turtle" so "snail on quaaludes". In any given search, the reduced time lag comparison with other search engines in getting results was always noticeable...until today when the decision was made to provide the reader with some specific times, comparing the slick speedster to big dog Google when searching for several terms. The results were once again startling.

Beginning with Bing, keywords chosen at random were run through the search process, each run being timed as closely as possible without the use of a stopwatch. On average, the elapsed time seemed to hover around 2.5 seconds with no single shot taking longer than 3 seconds flat. That was no surprise whatsoever.

Google results were another matter. Rather, they were not another matter. Google elapsed times came in 2.5 seconds on average and never longer than 3 seconds flat, results identical to the competition.

No doubt the two search engines are far from being "the same" when it comes to scientific descriptions or a total computer geek who can measure these things down to the nanosecond. The average user, however, is not going to be able to tell the difference.

How did the gap in speed get closed? it looks like the most obvious answer is that Google stepped up to the plate. That is, faced with faster competition from MSN's newest race car , they found a way to turbocharge their own offering. With a talent pool of more than 20,000 employees to draw from, why not? Doncha love a free market?

Which will I use the most for the foreseeable future? Actually, all three: The big dog, the new cat, and Yahoo. These these produce vastly different results for the same search even though a few heavy hitting pages will show up in highly ranked positions on all three. Forget MSN Search; never could stand that one. AOL? Don't get me started.

Now if the USA could just come up with a competitive Third Party to shake up both the Democrats and Republicans....

Thanks for reading,

Ghost32