Bing brings national convention search tools to desktop & mobile; Google keeps it mobile only

Convention-related queries on Google desktop don't deliver any special convention search features.

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With the Republican National Convention underway, both Bing and Google have launched search tools for convention-related queries.

While Bing is delivering its “convention experience” on both desktop and mobile, Google rolled out its convention-specific search features on mobile only — focusing desktop election-related searches on voter registration information.

Bing announced last week that it was releasing the “Bing convention experience” to surface real-time news, event information and a live stream of the conventions.

Convention-related search terms like “national convention,” “republican national convention” and “democratic national convention” on Bing deliver the following “Election 2016” search tool with the option to navigate between conventions, the Bing political index, primaries, candidates, timeline and Bing’s search wave, which displays search trends for candidates by state.

Bing desktop search

The same mobile searches on Bing deliver an optimized search tool with convention information, including an overview, live stream, convention-related tweets and an FAQ.

Bing mobile search

The same searches on Google desktop do not offer any special convention-related search tools.

Google desktop search

Instead, Google took a different route to convention-related searches, announcing last week that it would be rolling out a YouTube live stream of the conventions for convention-related searches, but only on mobile.

Google mobile search1

If you scroll below the convention live stream on Google mobile results for “national convention” (or other convention-related search terms), you’ll see a box listing speaker lineups for the conventions:

google mobile search 2

And, below speaker lineups, Google has included cards for the party candidates:
Google mobile search 3

Convention-related search terms on Google desktop don’t deliver any special convention-focused search tools, giving Bing the definite edge. Not only does Bing give more information, but the organization and breadth of convention-related info on Bing is also much more in-depth.


Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.


About the author

Amy Gesenhues
Contributor
Amy Gesenhues was a senior editor for Third Door Media, covering the latest news and updates for Search Engine Land, MarTech and MarTech Today. From 2009 to 2012, she was an award-winning syndicated columnist for a number of daily newspapers from New York to Texas. With more than ten years of marketing management experience, she has contributed to a variety of traditional and online publications, including MarketingProfs, SoftwareCEO, and Sales and Marketing Management Magazine. Read more of Amy's articles.

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