Nick Gaskins

Recently we’ve discovered a few more Bings out there – besides Microsoft’s. There are several similar, small design agencies across the country that share our name. And, upon the release of Microsoft’s search engine, some of them are changing their names.

We’re not.

Because, our “Bing” means more than just “eureka!” It’s part of our history.

Here’s some Bing trivia for your Thursday:

Our agency was established in 1979 by Bob Bingenheimer. At that time, the agency was known as Bingenheimer Design. Bob “retired” in 2000 and sold the agency to an employee, Nick Gaskins. As the new owner, Nick shortened the name to Bing.

For more information about Bing, visit our site.

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.

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…

In a meeting this morning, Nick Gaskins sparked the idea for this post with one phrase:

“Innovate what we do best.”

I began to evaluate. To create a truly innovative company or idea, you must create and support an innovative environment. You also have to demonstrate a commitment to innovation.

But, you don’t have to start from scratch. You can take your current competencies and find new, creative ways to deliver even better results.

So I put together some best practices – so to speak – on how to cultivate an innovative company.

• Review technological and social trends and developments to identify opportunities for innovation (Best example is social networking on Web 2.0 or Corporate Social Responsibility.)
• Train and develop people’s capacity to innovate.
• Bring together diverse groups to develop new perspectives (People from different professional disciplines, different companies or different communities.)
• Provide tools and techniques to encourage innovation (brainstorming, mind-mapping, scenario planning or web forums)
• Offer incentives and rewards for innovation (e.g., innovation awards, competitions, challenges, published case studies, recognition for a great new idea, financial rewards for innovative suggestions)
• Be entrepreneurial (Test out innovative ideas.)
• Follow trends! Every year new trends are discussed to watch for. One that I have recently read and interested to follow is Five Digital Trends to Watch for 2009.

Even the smallest detail could have a large impact on your overall innovation.

How will you promote innovation?

This has been a tough and emotional week for everyone at Bing. Like many businesses, we have been impacted by the downturn in the economy and I had to make the difficult decision to lay off two exceptional members of our staff. We’ll greatly miss them, and wish them the best of luck.

In addition, we have restructured our creative department and are now offering some of our higher level strategic thinking through a contractor arrangement with Todd who had been on staff as creative director. This restructuring will allow both of us to focus more tightly on our core competencies, while continuing to collaborate on key projects.

This is one of the hardest decisions I’ve had to make as the owner of Bing, but I believe it is the right decision for the company to remain healthy and productive in order to serve our clients. We have a solid team in place and the unifying factor is that we all believe in putting the customer first while continuing to provide our clients with excellent service.

If you have comments, questions or thoughts, please feel free to contact me.