For some searches on both Bing and Google, the top result is enhanced with additional data. For simplicities’ sake (and because I’m selfish) I’m going to focus on one search for my personal site to compare the two.

Google’s result for my site looks like this:

Google calls the info below the main result Sitelinks. They’re defined as such:

The links shown below some sites in our search results, called sitelinks, are meant to help users navigate your site. Our systems analyze the link structure of your site to find shortcuts that will save users time and allow them to quickly find the information they’re looking for.

Bing’s look like this (click for a larger image)

In this case, Bing’s consist of two parts. Deep Links, which are analogous to Google’s Sitelinks and the little flyout on the right which is a Definitive Card (D-card.) They’re defined as such:

• Definitive card (D-card) – Building on the best match idea, we also offer additional information for some queries including hard to find information such as the customer service information telephone number – try it here for UPS.
• Deep Links – You’ll see in both of the above examples a feature we call Deep Links. These are the set of eight links in Best Match or D-card under the site description. These offer a fast shortcut deeply into the most relevant parts of that site.

Comparing the two it’s yet another place where Bing is innovating and Google is standing still. Yeah, I know about Chrome OS, and Wave and Closure and all the other new, fancy products Google has released, but in their core business, search, Microsoft is clearly the company pushing the envelope. That’s why people are excited about Bing.

Is the D-Card feature perfect? No. In the case of my site it would be better if the “New at the Site” blurb contained links to the new content. But, it’s still a nice preview feature and for other sites the content is even more interesting.

This makes for interesting times in the search space as Google is eventually going to react to this innovation on MS’s part. I can’t wait to see how this all plays out over the next couple of years.