Bing, Google, and Drawing Connections

In the summer of 2012, I was diagnosed with Search Overload Syndrome, and ever since then I have been followed with the nickname “Google.”

I walked into my kitchen on a Sunday morning to find a sink full of pans and one of my roommates whisking away at a bowl full of eggs, spinach, and bacon. It turns out that she was baking a quiche for breakfasts the coming weeks. I just responded with the phonetic pronunciation — “qi-cheh” — and said, “don’t you think that is a bit cliché?” My roommate dismissed me with an, “okay, Google,” a nickname that has become a sign of my random word plays and irrelevant associations: a sign of the way I connect the dots.

The nickname dates back to Microsoft’s Bing commercials that aired in 2009 called “Search Overload.” To compete with Google and other search engines, Bing showed scenes that highlighted the irrelevancy of frequent search results. A character in the commercial would comment on a nonchalant subject and would receive replies of homonyms, synonyms, or other irrelevancies. A simple search for a new breakfast restaurant would lead the character’s friend to spout details about “Breakfast Club.”

The fictional disorder was created by Microsoft’s Bing to brand itself as a decision engine, but that did not stop my friends for diagnosing me with it through the nickname “Google.” The symptoms that caused the nickname included extremely dry puns and drawing connections to seemingly irrelevant information in normal conversations. Looking back, I have had this curious malady for most of my life. I grew up with a father who had an interest in music and very dry puns. Dinner with my family would frequently turn into Abbot and Costello’s “Who’s on First” with classic rock. This dinner conversation would seep into my daily life, so every word I would hear had dozens of ways to interpret it.

Microsoft’s Bing advertisements were successful in capturing a frustration with impertinent responses to a simple search. A question like “where should we eat for breakfast?” on Google leads to over 200 million search results ranging from quiche recipes to movies like the “Breakfast Club.” Bing is replying to frustration with Google by becoming a decision engine, specifically targeting the shopping, local, travel and health space. The same summer “Search Overload” was aired, Google released a campaign called “Going Google.” Focusing on switching to GMail and other apps, rather than cutting through the information, Google wants to immerse you in its myriad of connections.

My nickname originally tried to capture my tangents through Bing’s advertisements. While it is frowned upon in Bing’s campaign, I embrace connections as a way to see information in a new way. As portrayed in many Google campaigns, beyond just “Going Google,” drawing connections can be a way of life. Every connection drawn is a way to explore a new insight that could lead to something as big as a brilliant strategy or as small as a hilarious pun. Drawing connections focuses on that the exciting way that seemingly unrelated information can connect to create an engaging campaign concept. I embrace my nature as Google where quiche can be connected to cliché and a nickname can be connected to the branding of search engines.

So welcome to my world of connections, where everything is made up and the points don’t matter. No, wait, that’s not right.

Taylor “Google” Williams
taylorawilliams.com