June 26 (Bloomberg) -- In this spring’s “Star Trek” movie, cadet James T. Kirk defeats the Kobayashi Maru scenario, a battle simulation designed to be unwinnable, by rewriting the rules.

Microsoft, a perennial also-ran in Internet search, must have taken the same course. Facing in Google an opponent so dominant that its name has become synonymous with searching, Microsoft has chosen instead to change the nature of the competition.

The vehicle is Bing (http://www.bing.com), which replaced Microsoft’s Live Search offering, which replaced about 18 other failed attempts to match or catch Google.

I’ve been using Bing for about a month now, sometimes in lieu of Google, sometimes head to head with it. My conclusion: While it won’t supplant and poses little threat to Google, it creates a different user experience that in a few targeted niches may even be better.

Bing’s approach is to make the search-results page into more of a destination unto itself, rather than just a pointer to resources available elsewhere. By providing more information and options at the outset, the theory goes, Bing reduces your need to click elsewhere, or helps you make a more intelligent choice before you do. And by and large, the theory is true -- at least in those areas such as health, travel and shopping that have been targeted for special attention.

Mayo Clinic

On health, for instance, Microsoft has licensed content from the Mayo Clinic; enter the name of a medical condition, and along with the search results you get the option to open the Mayo article without leaving Bing. (It would be nice, though, if a button let you hide the expanded content and return to the search results without having to use the “Back” button.)

Enter “Newark San Francisco flights” and Bing searches across multiple sites simultaneously, delivering along with the prices a prediction for whether they are more likely to increase or decrease over the next month. Enter “Canon ELPH” and the page includes digital-camera comparison-shopping information.

The typical Bing results page tends to have a lot going on. Use your mouse to hover over the right edge of a link and an excerpt from the page being linked to opens in the right margin. Image search results display by default on one continuous page, with thumbnails that load as you scroll. Mouse over a video preview and it starts to play, with sound; move the mouse away, and it stops.

Blurring Distinctions

It isn’t just that you’re getting more information on results pages; you’re getting more different kinds of information -- a blurring of distinctions among search, content and action that reduces the risk that you will end up clicking down an Internet rathole.

The contrasts between Bing and Google are even more vivid when you access Bing from its home page, as opposed to a browser toolbar or mobile device.

Google is all minimalism; some at the company are known to count the number of words on the page, to guard against excessive complexity or distraction. Bing, meanwhile, offers a colorful photo of frolicking lion cubs or the Sydney Opera House, with relevant links that become visible as you move the mouse over various hotspots. If you aren’t trying to find something in a hurry, it’s a fun and engaging bit of serendipity.

Of course, Microsoft is still Microsoft, which means, prepare for a little weirdness. When I wanted to scroll through previous cover photos using Google’s Chrome browser, I was halted by a prompt to install Microsoft’s Silverlight multimedia software.

Following Orders

Dutifully following orders, I ran into a message informing me that “the site you visited was built for an earlier, beta version of Silverlight -- not the current one. Please contact the site owner to let them know that they must upgrade to the latest release.” Umm, Microsoft -- consider yourself contacted.

Moreover, venture outside Bing’s comfort-zone subject queries, and Google still seems somehow smarter.

For example, the week the 2008 Batman flick “The Dark Knight” debuted on cable, I entered it in both engines in hopes of getting a schedule of HBO’s broadcast times. Granted, this was a less-than-pressing question; HBO subscribers know the correct answer to the question “when is it on?” is “apparently continuously.” Still, a direct link to the HBO schedule was Google’s No. 1 result.

Ring Tones, DVDs

Bing, meanwhile, pushed the search results down the page to make room at the top for ads for AT&T “Dark Knight” ring tones, Amazon.com DVD sales and two other sponsored links. Well down its list of results was a link to the HBO home page, requiring still more navigation to get to the actual airtimes. Even adding the word “schedule” to the search box didn’t yield the desired result.

A Bloomberg colleague reported a similar experience searching Bing’s sports content June 24 and expecting to see a report of the U.S.’s stunning 2-0 victory over Spain in soccer. Instead, he got a two-day-old preview of the match. (The newer information eventually showed up atop the results page later in the day.)

What I concluded after my month was that if I wanted to learn something, Google was likelier to make me happy; if I wanted to do something, Bing tended to be the choice.

In what promises to become an annoyingly ubiquitous marketing campaign, Microsoft doesn’t even refer to Bing as a search engine; it is, the company says, a “decision engine.” In other words, if you can’t beat ‘em -- in this case, Google -- change the terms of engagement. It’s a strategy Captain Kirk would understand in an instant.

(Rich Jaroslovsky is a columnist for Bloomberg News. The opinions expressed are his own.)

To contact the writer of this column: Rich Jaroslovsky in New York at rjaroslovsky@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: June 26, 2009 00:01 EDT