Bing has just launched a new section where users can browse and find “great sites” (or in other words an index of websites) called Bing Editor’s Picks. If this whole concept sounds very familiar to you, this is because its actually not so much different than the many web directories on the internet…

If It Walks Like a Duck…

It may have a modern attractive design, it may have a fancy name and it may even contain really good websites links, but in the end, Bing Editor’s Picks is just like any other web directory, just like DMOZ or the Yahoo Directory. And if you paid good attention to the last few years changes and progresses, you probably noticed that directories are endangered species.

I tried to find some evidence that Bing didn’t intend to create a web directory, just a real recommendations section, but all i could find is a web directory’s characteristics:

–  On the Editor’s Picks homepage it says- “…Sites to make it easier and faster to find what you’re looking for.”

–  There aren’t any recommendations, only short site’s descriptions with a thumbnail photo.

–  Users can “recommend” sites.

I don’t know if anybody told the Bing team (or Microsoft for that matter), but people don’t use directories to find/discover/browse websites online anymore, that’s what search engines are for! (wait, isn’t Bing one?)

Bing made a lot of progress over the last year and became a really good search engine (honestly!), Some even say it is closing the quality gap and getting closer to Google. But Bing Editor’s Picks seems to me like a desperate move to gain some market share. Currently it is only available in the U.s., the rest of the world will have to somehow survive on the meantime…