Articles by Nick

Bing has undergone significant changes over the past year – a new logo and web site, fluctuating roles and responsibilities, shifts in the economy, and a broadening diversity of client work.

Binger Emeritus - Melissa Blevins

Our most recent staff change was the resignation of Melissa Blevins. She has been working virtually from a home office in Colorado Springs for the past two years and has done a fantastic job. Through her relocation and travels to Beijing, she has been dedicated and shown amazing follow through in managing clients, projects, and different timezones!

While we’ve been very thankful that we were able to extend her role with Bing after her move westward, Melissa has decided it’s time to look for other opportunities closer to home. We’re confident her professionalism will take her far. Thanks Melissa, for your commitment to Bing through the years and good luck to you in your endeavors! Take care of Martin the cat and Robert for us!

With so many changes going on, we decided to hold a roundtable to address the direction of the business, explore opportunities, and get each other’s perspectives on how things are going. Our HR consultant, Rosalie Catalano, facilitated the discussion and kept it on track through our banter. Several things stood out as we enjoyed our Current Cuisine lunches.

• We value our communication channels and enjoy working in “unstructured” structure.
• Each of us brings a dynamic value-add to their position, and we utilize each other’s strengths to explore opportunities.
• Our ability to adapt to changing needs is a company strength.
• Maintaining a healthy work/life balance is important to all of us.
• We strive to be an efficient extension of our clients’ marketing teams.

Keeping a watchful eye on things like the economy, competition, and other variables that are potential threats on the business, we feel that we have stayed the course to keep our clients satisfied as well as our internal customer. In what turned out to be a mini SWOT analysis of Bing, we seemed to come away knowing it’s not a perfect company, but it has unique strengths that we all contribute to.

We were wondering how the new bing.com web search would affect our business once it was released. So far, one result has been that we’re turning into a third-party sounding board. Here are some of the comments we’ve received through OUR web contact form at bingdesign.com…

I constantly mistype weather making it weatehr or something similar, when I search for the word it suggests weather even if it was mistyped in the search results but if you could show on the suggested pull down list correctly spelled words if its not a recognized word to help me catch the typos before waiting on the search you could speed up my search time.

When a subject is typed into the search space and the enter is hit, one does not like to have to do it twice becuae someone programed the computer to make it happen that way. I could care less about the first group of crap that po’s up, I want the subject and do not want to have to hunt for it. That is why I do not, and my friends who come over and use my computers will no longer do so. Thank you so much for that one. Try Harder Please.

nice job, found out about this site in business week, search brings up different sites that I really do appreciate you finding for me, nice to see microsoft kicking some butt.

I attempted to use Bing to do two simple searches. First, the names and contact information of Motels, Hotels etc in Gladwin, Michigan. It produce what I would call garbage information. One of the facilities that it came up with is for sale and is not even open. Second, I asked for Multuple Sclerosis and known recognized treatments. I was looking to see if you had the material that i could get from my local library. The library has access to articles and medical journals from all over the world. The material that I saw listed did not include very much data from outside the United States. The British have a great deal of data and studies done over the past 50 years that do not even mention. Some of it includes studies done on things like Greek Extra Virgin Olive oil done in the 1960’s which turned out to be quite effective. Best of luck with the site. It appears today that some tweeking is in order.

is Pakistan not a country to live.com name was cooler bing is kool but not cooler ur website is cooler but why is no name of pakistan in ur countries list we r better than india plz put Pakistans name on it we r better than middle eastern countries as well google has a pakistani google why not bing

Hello, I just want to thank you all for creating an awesome online seach engine – bing.com. I have been a big Google fan for many years, but ever since I discovered bing.com a while ago I have transfered over – making Bing my #1 online seach engine. I discovered bing.com through a friend and now I have all my family, friends, and co-workers hooked on this site. It has gotten so bad at work that now we all have it as our Internet homepage. I love everything about Bing. It is easy, quick, better results, and has other cool features, which include the \”Popular now\” links. And the best thing about it all – I can access it at any time and still get great results, without error messages. As a student and as an employee, I definately appreciate this site. Great job guys! I will definately speak to my friends at school and work to give Bing.com a try. But I am most convinced that once they try it – they too will be hooked. Keep up the good job. I look forward to this site\’s future success. As I tell my friends, GO BING.COM!!

I’m a programmer and the search on your site doesn’t work. I typed in ‘What color is a blue car’ and the results were complicated and didn’t make sense.

I HAVE NOT BEEN ABLE TO DOWNLOAD THE BING TOOL BAR. I HAVE TRIED 3 TIMES

Please forward to the president or marketing director. I\’m a producer and have a cool song called BING  DING, it would be great for marketing your co. contact me for a licensing deal please. check the song out at cdbaby.com/cd/joeswampdawghenry

A broad spectrum of suggestions can spark some interesting conversations around the water cooler. Join the crowd and let us know what YOU think of the new search engine too.

In support of a local creative project, I’m copying parts of a recent email here. Help spread the word…

The Xenia Mural Society, a component of Greene Giving, is issuing a Call to Artists for original and creative designs for a mural with the general theme of “Trails” to be placed on a building in Xenia. For this mural, “Trails” can be interpreted loosely to include anything historical or currently relative to the Xenia area from buffalo trails to Native American trails, Pioneer trails, early roadways, railroads, hiking, or bicycling or any combination of these.

The honorarium for the winning artist’s design for the “Trails” mural will be $500 and the design will become the property of the Xenia Mural Society.  The final mural will be completed by a muralist working in conjunction with the winning artist and the Society. If the selected artist has the ability and desire to complete the actual mural he or she will be encouraged to submit a proposal for the entire project. Given current economic conditions, the Society is working to have a “brush ready” project prepared in order to facilitate creation of a mural or murals as soon as funding permits.

The deadline for submission of up to three detailed sketches per artist is July 1, 2009. Finalists will be asked to submit a full color rendering on suitable material, no smaller than 24″ in width, which must be received by August 15. An application form should be submitted with each set of sketches (available at www.XeniaMurals.org). Final competing designs will be displayed for public comment at Xenia’s Rail & Arts Fest on August 22. The winning submission will be announced at Xenia’s Old Fashioned Days, September 19.

Several possible sites may be viewed online at www.XeniaMurals.org. There are currently two buildings whose owners have agreed to discuss hosting a mural. Building 1: Montgomery Insurance and Investments, located at 114 S. Detroit St., has a side wall space of approximately 75X25′. Building 2: Express Yourself Coffeehouse and Art Gallery, located at 78 E. Main St., has a side wall space of approximately 75X14′. All or part of the wall surfaces may be incorporated into the rendering.

For more information visit www.XeniaMurals.org or email info@xeniamurals.org or phone the Xenia Area Chamber of Commerce (937) 372-3591.

You might be looking at the logo to the right and thinking, “Did Bing Design re-brand their logo again!?” No, we are happy with the way our logo turned out. But what you’re seeing is Microsoft’s identity for Bing, a new search engine.

To stay competitive with Google’s dominance in online searching, Microsoft has positioned Bing as a “Decision Engine”.

We have all heard when you need to look something up, to “google” it. In fact, google was added a few years ago to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary as a verb. Interesting point #1: I wonder why it’s not included as a noun too – isn’t a google a one with a hundred zeros after it? Interesting point #2: I see that Microsoft is already trying to verb-ilize ‘bing’ also.

Microsoft’s marketing gurus hope that Bing will evoke the same feeling as the sound – the ringing of a bell that signals the eureka moment when a search leads to an answer. The name is meant to conjure “the sound of found” as Bing helps people solve complex tasks.

Bing (the other one) seems to be focusing on searches related to:

• Making a purchase decision
• Planning a trip
• Researching a health condition
• Finding a local business

A “cherries-to-cherries” comparison of that Bing and this Bing shows a few similarities:

• We help clients make marketing decisions that meet their needs and fit their budget.
• We assist you with team outings. Yellow Springs is great place for a trip.
• We provide communication audits that help determine the health of your marketing efforts.
• We can localize your message in the new sense of the word – through social media communities.

So there you have it. The skinny about the Bing that’s been around for years, and that new startup from Microsoft…

I went to the open house on Sunday for new facilities at Bethany Village (a division of Graceworks Lutheran Services, one of our clients), and I was amazed at how well-planned and beautifully constructed it was. They had a great turnout even though the warm weather could have tempted many to stay outdoors. Graceworks staff were scattered throughout the new facility to explain features and guide visitors, and they were very helpful.

Residents enjoy visiting in the new bistro.

The goal of the new space was to connect residents and provide more gathering areas. They definitely accomplished that, by creating an interior walkway from one end of campus to the other. Along the way, they have incorporated educational and exercise facilities, a bistro, shopping, and other spaces designed to draw people together into the Village Center.

I was particularly taken by another area of the new construction – the Memory Support Center. Designed for residents with Alzheimer’s disease, there are four ‘neighborhoods’ that offer experiences to stimulate recognition and safe interaction both indoors and out.

More information is on Graceworks.org, and also in the latest annual report that we worked on for them. Take a look at our case study.