Bing.com has begun, now live and publicly available

Everybody has been talking about Microsoft's Live Search overhaul, named Bing, recently, and whether or not it would stand out in the search engine market. We here at Neowin have published an article, checking out all the different factors that would potentially lead to success. It's all well and good to talk about it and weigh it up, but the only way to really find out is by using it... something which is now possible.

Bing.com is now available for everybody to use, as a public beta, with no sign-ups for invitations needed. TechCrunch has already tried it out for themselves, and has posted a list of things to try:

* An ambiguous Web search: "turkey" (do you want images, recipes, facts, or a map of the country? The topic guides in the left explore pane will help you narrow your search).
* A travel search: "SFO to JFK"
* Video search: "Simpsons" (hover over the thumbnail to play the video)
* Image search: "Rollercoasters" (notice the infinite scroll).
* A health search: "Sore throat"
* Shopping: "Digital SLR" (sort by price or brand, get average ratings and CashBack).
* Maps: "BBQ" (automatically knows what city you are in and offers up geo-appropriate results).
* News Search: "Bing" (what else?)

Of course, if rollercoasters and shopping aren't exactly your thing, you can always use Bing for more entertaining purposes. Additionally, for the Firefox users out there, you can pick up a Bing add-on from Long Zheng, for handy searching.

Be sure to go now and try it out, and report back here with your findings.