Why I love Bing
In the business of background investigations, the goal is to find as much information as humanly possible on your subject, while respecting the client’s time frame and budget. That’s why I use professional online tools that help me quickly target what I need within a vast array of sources.
I also use Google, and I use Bing, because – as big as it is – Google doesn’t catch everything. No search engine can. After scanning hundreds or thousands of Google search results, I always head to Bing and run the same search that I had just done in Google.
Bing delivers fewer results, so they’re easy to scan. I often wonder why I bother, because Bing can be, well, Bing. Lots of junk. But every so often, you’re rewarded for your persistence, and you find it! The one piece of info about your subject that adds something special to your report.
This happened to me recently while running a background check on an individual. I had found very little on this guy. Not a problem, since, in my business, no news can be good news. Only I hate delivering nothing, and my client loves to receive something, especially a little of what we call “color” – information that helps paint a picture of this person’s true nature – instead of what they present to the professional world.
So, there I was, working on the last step in my research process, running all my searches through Bing. I was on the last of several pages of search results, and there it was! Just the nugget needed to add the required color to my report. In his supplied bio, our subject indicated that he had spent a year on sabbatical. That was all he provided, and I had been searching for clues about what he actually did during that year.
It turns out that this individual participated in an around-the-world race of some sort (don’t want to give too many details), and I had come across his blog, which he maintained throughout this incredible experience. Through his writing, this individual revealed more about his true character than any professional bio or Wall Street Journal profile. It showed physical and mental strength, perseverance, and the kind of focus my client looks for in their investment managers.
Google didn’t find this long-forgotten blog. LexisNexis, Dow Jones’ Factiva, and Proquest Dialog – my power search tools – didn’t find it. Only Bing found it.
And that’s why I love Bing.
