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Bing Videos And Bing Search Get Updates As Well

Martin — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 19:15:26 +0000

Microsoft this time seems to be dead serious to compete at all levels with the seemingly almighty guys at Google and especially their search engine. Several key services over at Bing were updated today including the already reviewed Bing Maps service. But Bing Maps was but one service that got updated. Microsoft has also updated Bing Search and Bing Videos to make the services more appealing and useful to web users.

Bing Videos for one got a new interface making use of a sidebar navigation for a better and faster browsing experience. Other improvements to the interface include the option to dim the surroundings when a video is played to be able to better focus on the video. New content providers have been and will be added to Bing Videos making the service a very comprehensive source for videos and tv shows from all over the web.

Most of the US tv shows can only by viewed by US users on the other hand which puts a dent to the service for users from outside the US. Read the announcement here for additional information.

Today was also the beginning of the next chapter of Bing Search with improvements to travel, weather and shopping options. One of the interesting options is a search for events in US cities. The search term city events will lead to a standard Bing search results page with the difference that the first result will list events in that city and link to a bigger event listing in case that short listing is not enough.

Other additions include “better results for health conditions, medications, and even hospitals”, search sharing with friends at Facebook and Twitter or better help to plan and book travel. Most of these additions seem to be targeted at US visitors at the moment with the likelihood that they will eventually become available for visitors from other countries as well.

Tags: bing, bing events, bing health, bing search, bing travel, bing videos, search engine

Bing Maps Gets An Update

Martin — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 16:16:43 +0000

Bing Maps has been updated today with several new features and a new look and feel. Most notably in this regard are a new button bar with each button loading a specific feature of Bing Maps. Microsoft has also added some new colors to Bing Maps but those are only the obvious changes to the interface. Among the new features are the option to embed Bing maps into websites allowing website owners or those with posting rights (for example on forums) to post maps that can be customized by location, size and map style.

The performance of Bing Maps was improved in several ways. Microsoft is now serving maps from seven different locations in the world making it faster for the user to access the information requested. The default Bing Maps homepage has seen a size reduction as well from nearly 700 Kilobytes to less than 500 Kilobytes which should be noticeably by and beneficial to low bandwidth connections.

The full list of changes includes:

Draggable Routes – Yes! This is a great (and much requested) feature added to Bing Maps allowing you to generate a route, then in the case that you need to change the route, you can simply grab any part of it and drag it to where you want the route to actually go. To use draggable routes, click the directions link in the welcome pane or the car icon near the bottom of the welcome pane. Enter a start and end, generate a route, then grab anywhere on the route to move the route line. The route will regenerate for you.
Zoom Bar – No longer just a zoom in and zoom out button, the zoom bar allows you to jump to specific zoom levels within predefined settings.
Command Parsing – Want driving directions? Enter “Bellevue, WA to Space Needle” in the Bing Maps search box. Want traffic info? Enter “Seattle Traffic” in the Bing Maps search box.
Embed a Map – You can now take a map view right from Bing Maps and embed it into your site. To do this, you’ll want to click the Share button once your map is where you want it to be. You can copy the embed code from there; or, you can click the Customize View link which will take you to the embeddable map customizer (EMC). The EMC allows you to set a map to the map height and width (small, medium, large or custom); the map type (static or draggable); the map styles (road, aerial, aerial w/ labels); and, add links to Bing Maps for Viewing a Larger Map or Getting Directions. Once you’ve set everything the way you want it, click Generate Code and boom! there’s your code. You copy it, then paste it into your web page and you’ll have the map you wanted.
Dynamic Compute – We’ve moved the processing power closer to the user. Using Microsoft’s ECN, we now have Bing Maps running in data centers in 7 locations around the world. This means wherever you are around the world, you will access Bing Maps from the closest geographic node to where you are physically located.
New Navigation – We also added a subset of features to a button bar along the bottom of the welcome pane. Each button loads features on Bing Maps. Welcome loads the welcome pane; the car loads the route planner; the star loads My Places, formerly called Collections; the envelop loads the ability to share the map with someone via email, copying a URI or embedding the map into a web page (more on that below); the printer icon is for printing; and, stoplight will load a traffic overlay with flow and incident information.
World Wrap – no longer will your Bing Maps experience stop at the international date line. Keep going around, and around, and around…
Diet Bing Maps – The default Bing Maps home page dropped from 678kb to 484kb. It zips through the pipes much faster now.

Bing Maps is a service over at Microsoft’s Bing search engine.

Tags: bing, bing maps, maps, microsoft, search engine

Bing And Google Search To Integrate Twitter Results

Martin — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 11:35:40 +0000

Real time search has become a buzzword this year. With Twitter increasing its popularity search engines like Bing or Google Search are aiming to make their search results real time or at least closer to that. We have seen some attempts already. Google for instance has included new time based filters for their search results that allow users to search for new content that has been published in the last hour. And with url hacks it is even possible to drop that figure below the one hour mark (see Google Real Time Search).

Twitter on the other hand adds another dimension to search. Not to every search but to specific search terms that are time related. Think for instance about news of plane crashes, earthquakes and other disasters and basically anything that benefits from real time observations.

Bing has already included Twitter in their search engine. The subpage of Bing displays popular topics on Twitter by default.

A search or a click on a popular tag will display the latest tweets and top links shared by Twitter users about the selected topic.

Google on the other hand has just announced that they will be adding Twitter results to their search engine as well in the coming months. According to the announcement only search terms that can benefit from real time observations.

The main question that neither Microsoft nor Google are addressing at the moment is how the quality of the content is evaluated. Since the content is displayed more or less in real time there is no time for a manual control of the content. How are they going to differentiate between good and bad – true or false – content.

What’s your take on the development?

Tags: bing, google search, real-time search, twitter

Bing Federated Search Connector For Windows 7

Martin — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 08:46:00 +0000

Federated search is one of new features of Microsoft’s Windows 7 operating system. The feature integrates the possibility to search external data sources from within Windows Explorer in the same way a local or remote search is performed. Federated search in Windows 7 is enabled through the Open Search standard with a good dozen connectors for popular services like Flickr, Youtube, Google or Yahoo already available for download. One of the latest additions is the Bing federated search connector which adds the option to perform Bing searches in Windows Explorer.

The Bing search connector can be downloaded at Bing’s community portal. It comes as a osdx file that needs to be executed after download. Windows 7 will automatically install the Bing search connector which becomes then available in Windows Explorer.

The search provider is usually listed under the Favorites menu in the left sidebar. A search is performed by typing in the search phrase into the Windows Explorer search form in the right header of the window.

Search results are then displayed in the Windows Explorer window from where they can be opened and accessed. Additional federated search connectors for various online services are available at Redmond Pie.

Tags: bing, bing search, federated search, open search, search connectors, windows 7, windows-explorer

Bing Maps 3D

Martin — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 07:31:31 +0000

Bing Maps, which was formerly known as Virtual Earth, is Microsoft’s answer to Google Maps. The maps service is directly available on the Bing homepage and offers a 2D mode by default. This mode can be used to zoom in and out of locations in the world or get directions from one place to another. The main difference between the two maps services is the third party support. Hundreds, if not thousands of Google Maps mashups exist which is one of the prime reasons for the popularity of the service.

Bing Maps 3D is an add-on for Bing Maps which activates the 3D mode. This mode adds the possibility to zoom and rotate in 3D. Probably the most interesting aspect of the add-on are the 3D models of buildings and sights that have been added to the map. Among the cities are New York, Las Vegas, Tokyo and Berlin.

Bing Maps 3D can be installed in two different ways. The first option is to visit the Bing Maps website and click on the 3D link in the upper left control panel. This will open a window with the possibility to download Bing Maps 3D. The second possibility is to download the add-on directly from a Microsoft server. The web browser needs to be closed and restarted after installation. The installation displays (preselected) options to switch to MSN as the homepage and Bing as the default search engine. Users who do not want this should ensure that they have unchecked the options.

A fast video card and Internet connection is advised to enjoy Bing Maps 3D.

Tags: bing, bing maps, bing maps 3d, google maps

Bing & Ping Preview

Martin — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 11:07:35 +0000

The Microsoft Bing development team is trying to distinguish their search engine from Google by adding new features to their search engine. The latest feature that the team is developing goes by the name Bing & Ping. It has been designed to offer Bing users better options to share search results. This feature resembles the “social” buttons that are displayed on blogs and other websites. Bing & Ping integrates Facebook, Twitter plus email and copy options in the Bing search engine.

Only specific results, called Bing’s Instant Answers, can be shared this way. This includes translations, sport results, weather conditions, financial information and more.

Microsoft is now offering signups for the Bing & Ping preview.

Thanks for your interest in the Bing & Ping preview. If you want to participate in the preview program, please submit your Windows Live ID. If you do not have a Windows Live ID, you can register for one by going to https://signup.live.com. You will receive a reply confirming your acceptance into Bing & Ping via e-mail to the Windows Live ID you provided. The e-mail will provide additional details on the features we’re testing out, including some examples of how to use them.

Users who are interested to test this new feature can sign up at the Bing & Ping Preview page. Users who signup for the preview will receive an email once the service has been activated for them. The email will contain instructions and examples on how to use the service.

Tags: bing, Bing & Ping, facebook, search engine, twitter

Bing Visual Search

Martin — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 22:00:42 +0000

One of the new improvements that Microsoft introduces in their search engine Bing is a Silverlight driven visual search engine. Visual search meaning that pictures will be used to display and navigate the search results instead of text and text links. The benefit is a better search experiment with the limitation that it only works for specific topics and not every search. Microsoft has created roughly 30 different visual search niches in the categories entertainment, famous people, reference, shopping and sports. The shopping category contains the visual search topics cell phones, digital cameras, new cars, handbags and HDTVs.

A click on any topic will open the results in an image grid. The results are automatically sorted. The cell phone results page for instance sorts the different cell phones by brand. Hovering over a cell phone will display a search term in the Bing search box; A click will perform a normal search in Bing for the search term.

Various sorting options are provided in a drop down menu at the top. Cell phones can for example be sorted by Bing popularity or contract price while the movies in theater can be sorted by release date, title, metacritic rating or weekend box office earnings.

The search engine will automatically sort the results without reloading the page. Bing’s visual search can be a comfortable way of exploring specific information. It is handy for Internet users who want to research specific topics like movies that are currently playing in cinema, popular books, top iPhone apps and dog breeds. This is especially a good solution for users who do not know where to look for this information. Internet veterans usually know the websites that they have to open to find the information that they are looking for.

Bing Visual Search (link) is an interesting concept but it is currently limited to a few dozen popular topics, probably to ensure that the quality of the results remains high. It is probably not going to be introduced on a larger scale in the near future.

Update:

Bing Visual Search is only available to visitors who are using the United States version of the search engine (maybe some others but that has not been tested). If another country is shown in the top right corner then a page not found error is displayed. To access visual search users need to change the country to United States.

Tags: bing, bing search, bing visual search, microsoft bing, search engine

Microsoft Will Upgrade Its Bing Search Engine This Fall

Martin — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 10:08:08 +0000

Microsoft’s introduction of its Bing search engine has revived search engine competition it seems. Bing did receive some praise since its introduction and Google has since then reacted by offering search engine users a preview of their upcoming search engine technologies in the form of the sandboxed search engine Caffeine and a limited test run of Ajax powered search which is delivering search results faster to the user.

Twitter has been full of messages about Microsoft’s coming upgrade of their Bing search engine. Most messages suggest a release this fall with some suspecting a release as early as the coming week. Relatively few information are provided about the changes that Microsoft is introducing in Bing 2.0. Some noteworthy ones are:

Silverlight powered Bing 2.0 on its way this month?: That’s the message coming out of yesterdays annual company

BING 2.0 terrific !! watch out guys ! bing + silverlight in maps = amazing !! goodbye google

It has to be noted that the tweets are coming out of Microsoft’s company meeting which suggest that most original information are provided by Microsoft employees. Microsoft on the other hand did not officially comment on the messages that have been posted.

It is also unknown if the search result quality has been improved as well or if only selected modules of the search engine have been optimized and improved. Guess we have to wait at least another week before we know for sure. What would you like to see in the new version of the search engine?

Tags: bing, bing 2.0, bing update, microsoft, microsoft bing, search engine

Microsoft And Yahoo Finally Strike Deal

Orrett Morgan — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 08:14:40 +0000

Well it seems that both Yahoo and Microsoft have reached an agreement regarding their search deal. You might remember that it has been close to two years that both companies have been going at each other with Microsoft even making a $44 billion bid for the embattled search engine.

Under the new deal however, both companies will remain separate and each will carry on their normal lives without the corporate wedding thing. But for the next ten years, both Yahoo and Microsoft will team up efforts to take on Google and their huge market dominance. Both companies combined will control 30% of the search engine market.

Yahoo, who has been bleeding fiscally for the past few years, will gain control of the ad revenue of both companies, which they claim will boost annual revenue of the company by half a billion dollars. It will also cut capital expenditure by a whopping $200 million while increasing operating cash flow by $275 million. Yahoo will be allowed to keep 88% of their ad sales during the first 5 years and Microsoft will guarantee a certain level of search revenue for Yahoo.

On the other side of the spectrum, Microsoft will control the actual technology used to serve the web results. Microsoft will roll out its “new” Bing search platform onto both companies search engines while incorporating some of Yahoo’s existing technologies such as Panama-ad-selling tool.

All in all the deal is expected to go into full effect within the next 2 years, once it passes regulatory checks that is. As it stands, it seems like the FCC won’t be bothered by such a partnership as both companies do seem to be taking quite a beating from the big “G.” And more importantly, both companies will remain separate during the entire love affair.

Of course its too early to tell if this will work out for both companies in the long run, but as it stands, Microsoft and Yahoo are bleeding in the SE department and something like this looks more promising then ever before. I’m not expecting Yahoo and Microsoft to snap up an extra 20% of the search engine market within the next few years, but with Google’s hands in everything other then improving their search results I think it is possible for a small dent to be made in Google’s dominance.

In the end, it will be Microsoft and Yahoo who will have to prove to customers that their search engines are on par with Google. At least for now no one can complain about Bing’s image and video search, hopefully they bring up their website results to par.

So what are your thoughts? Should Google be frightened or is Microsoft and Yahoo just another failed attempt to unseat the undisputed king? Let me know in the comments below.

Tags: bing, microsoft, microsoft serach, microsoft yahoo deal, yahoo, yahoo search

Microsoft Page Hunt

Martin — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 08:39:02 +0000

Microsoft’s new search engine Bing is doing quite well in several search engine marketing studies. It could do better and one interesting idea that the Microsoft researchers had was to create a game that would help the search results to be better. The game is an experimental game that is currently available on the Microsoft Labs website.

It basically centers on the following idea: The quality of search engine results can be improved by adding a human factor into the equation. Page Hunt will display websites to its visitors who have to guess the search phrase that is used to find that specific page in Bing. Points are awarded if the website is in the top 5 of the search engine for that query.

The researchers on the other hand are able to learn from the data that the users enter. They can use both positive and negative hits to improve the quality of Bing search results. Websites that are displayed to users range from commercial websites to those that promote open source software like Open Office. It is however sometimes quite difficulty to find the right search term to get the points.

Head over to Page Hunt if you want to play a little game and help Microsoft improve the quality of the Bing search results. Page Hunt requires Microsoft Silverlight.

Tags: bing, bing search, microsoft, microsoft bing, microsoft page hunt, page hunt, search engine

Google Unified Search

Martin — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 09:02:52 +0000

You need to search on multiple search engines if you truly want to research a search term, as opposed to simply finding a solution to it. Some users might think that searching in Google is enough to find all the relevant information about a search term and while that may be true more often than not it is a good practice to verify that all relevant websites have been discovered by cross-checking in other search engines.

Google Unified Search is a very interesting search add-on for the Firefox web browser. You might have read about add-ons that combine Google search results with those of other search engines such as Bing or Wolfram Alpha. Google Unified Search takes that concept a step further by integrating multiple search engines in Google results. It adds support for Bing, Wikipedia, Wolfram Alpha, Stumbleupon and Delicious in the Google search results.

Search results of one search engine besides Google Search are displayed at a time but it is possible to switch to the results of another one without having to reload the page. By default Google search results and Bing search results are displayed in the interface. A control in the top right corner makes it possible to switch the alternative search engine to another one.

A left click on a search result in the Google column will open the website as usual. A click on a result in the alternative search engine on the other hand will open the result just in the area of that search engine. Users who want to open the website normally will have to open it in a new tab or window instead.

Google Unified Search is an excellent way of displaying additional information about a search term in the Google search results.

Tags: bing, del.icio.us, firefox, firefox-add on, Google, google search, google unified search, stumbleupon, wikipedia, wolfram alpha

Bing Downloader

Martin — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 06:39:10 +0000

You might want to try out Bing Downloader if you are a huge fan of the Microsoft search engine Bing or enjoy looking at the wallpapers that get posted as background images every day. Microsoft has made the deliberate decision to add a background image to their search engine by default. Most likely to look different than their greatest foe Google Search. Some users have expressed the desire to download these background images to use them on their computer systems.

It is possible to download the Bing background image manually. How it is done depends on the web browser used. Firefox users can for example simply right-click on the image and select View Background Image to view the image in a new tab from where it can be saved to the computer system.

Bing Downloader has been designed to automate the process. All it does is to display and download the latest Bing background image. There are no advanced options available like downloading previous background images. All the user needs to do is to run it once per day to download that day’s background image to the computer.

The background images usually have a size of 958×512 which makes them not suitable as wallpapers for computer systems with large computer monitors unless the user decides to center the wallpaper. Bing Downloader is a free 10K download. It requires the Microsoft .net Framework 3.5.

Update: Bing seems to use different background images as can be verified at the Bing Image Archive.

Tags: bing, bing background image, bing downloader, microsoft .net framework 3.5, microsoft bing, portable software, search engine, windows software

Take a blind test and change your searching habits

Joe — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 13:59:40 +0000

I use Google out of habit and because I have always thought it is the best search engine. I’ve never objectively tried to compare major search engines and as a result I haven’t changed.

Blind Search allows you to compare the results of Google, Bing and Yahoo. You search for a term in it, and it brings up all 3 results side-by-side, but you are not told which site is which. You then say which you think is better, and the names are then revealed!

After using the site a dozen or so times, a clear image of what is the best search engine for you forms.

I was surprised that Google was only best for me in about a third of searches; I found Bing’s results much more relevant. (The creator of the site works for Microsoft though; although it isn’t affiliated to them!)

They also offer an OpenSearch plug-in (so it can be added to Firefox’s search bar, for example) and a plugin IE8. It also works for image search. Unfortunately, the site currently only works in US localisations, so one can’t use it to search google.co.uk etc.

Tags: bing, Google, live.com, microsoft, Search Engines, yahoo

5 Advanced Bing Tips

Martin — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 20:33:03 +0000

The coverage of Microsoft’s new search engine Bing was quite extensive here on Ghacks but also on many other sites on the Internet. This is going to slow down in the future but we have two articles about Bing that we would like to publish in the coming days. The first deals with 5 advanced tips that showcase some interesting features that Bing is offering but also should make working with the search engine more comfortable.

1. Remove the Bing background image

Many users think that the background image that is shown on the Bing homepage is more of a distraction than anything else. There is however a very easy way of removing the background image in the search engine to work with a barebone version without the background image. All that needs to be done is to open the Bing homepage with the following parameter:

http://www.bing.com/?rb=0

This will make the homepage show up without the background image which gets rid of the noise and can save some Kilobytes of data transfer as well.

2. IP Address lookup

Bing can lookup any IP address using an advanced parameter and display a list of domains that are hosted on that IP address. The parameter to do that is the following:

IP:[IP Address]

Substitute [IP Address] with a valid IP. The query IP:207.46.104.147 would for example display a list of domains hosted on that IP address.

3. Every search is available as an RSS feed

Every search on Bing is also available as an RSS feed which can be very interesting for webmasters who want to monitor their position in the search engine. The web feed will be updated whenever changes in website rankings occur. The feeds can be accessed from the web browser’s toolbars or by pointing a feed reader to the result url and appending

&format=rss

To the results. A search for Windows 7 would be available as an RSS feed from the following url

http://www.bing.com/search?q=windows+7&go=&qb=1&format=rss

4. The contains parameter

The parameter contains will tell the search engine to only look for websites that contain that search term. This can lead to some interesting searches when combined with other search phrases, some examples are:

Windows 7 contains:torrent
Madonna contains:mp3
Google contains:pdf

5. Display only wallpaper images

Bing’s image search has already received some praise in the past days. One interesting feature is the ability to display only wallpaper images in the image search results. This is done by searching for a term in Bing image search and clicking on the Size category in the left sidebar. It will automatically display various size filters including one called wallpaper. This will display only images that have the exact size of the computer screen resolution.

The parameters are available in the url which means users can change it to find wallpapers for other screen resolutions as well.

Tags: bing, bing search, bing tips, microsoft, microsoft search, seach engine

Search Bing And Google Simultaneously

Martin — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 16:58:44 +0000

A great way of testing a new search engine is to compare it to the dominant established search engine. BingAndGoogle offers a combined search interface that is more comfortable than working with two web browser windows or switching between tabs in the same window.

The search engine mashup displays a single search form on the main page. It will perform searches on both Bing and Google and display the results in two columns on the same page with the Microsoft Bing search engine on the left and the Google search engine on the right. This makes it easier to work with both search engines and compare results in the same window.

The service displays its search form on the top of the screen so that users can perform additional searches on both search engines right away. It is furthermore possible to use a search form in one of the columns to search in one search engine exclusively. The search for web browser that is shown in the image above shows that both search engines list Firefox, Opera, Google Chrome (Google Browser), Safari and Flock on the main page. Google links to the Maxthon web browser additionally while Microsoft to the defunct Netscape browser. Funny though that both are not linking to Internet Explorer on their first results page.

Both columns offer the full functionality offered by the search engine including image and video search. Bing And Google offers an easy to use mashup that delivers results from both Bing and Google making it extremely convenient to work with and compare both search engines.

Tags: bing, bing and google, Google, google search, microsoft bing, search, Search Engines

Join The Experiment: One Week Of Bing Only Searching

Martin — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 15:56:12 +0000

What better way to test a new or improved search engine than to be stuck with it for a full week without being able to fall back to other search engines. Bing is the new Microsoft search engine and we would like to invite each and everyone of you to test the ins and outs of the new search engine by forcing yourself to use it. We have created a set of rules in case you want to join the experiment so that you know what you are allowed to do and what not (not that we are going to punish you if you perform the occasional search using another search engine).

Bing Experiment Rules:

Use Bing exclusively for all of your searches for the next seven days
Write down what went well and what did not
Let us know your overall experience and rating of the search engine after the week
You may perform the exact same search in another search engine to compare results
You may also perform the exact same search in another search engine if Bing does not provide the results that you expect
You may use other search engines to look at search engine rankings

Now that we have established the rules of the experiment we would like to offer participants an incentive to take part. We are going to give away five Ghacks t-shirts to five random participants providing that we get that many users participating.

We would like to hear about your thoughts and experience with Bing. If you have anything to say let us hear about it. Check out Install Bing Search In Selected Web Browsers and our initial short review of Microsoft Bing.

Tags: bing, bing search, ghacks, live, microsoft, microsoft search, search engine, t-shirts

Install Bing Search In Selected Web Browsers

Martin — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 20:58:21 +0000

Microsoft’s new search engine Bing has been released to the public earlier today. The reviews have been quite positive so far. Most modern web browsers can be customized by the user. This includes adding search engines to the search interface in the browser.

Users who would like to add the Bing search engine to Internet Explorer or Firefox can do that already. Firefox users can download a Bing Search add-on for their web browser which adds the search engine to the list of available search engines in the search form. There are quite a few Bing search add-ons available but only one that claims to have been developed by members of the Bing development team.

The add-on will display the terms of service which have to be accepted. The above window appears accepting the terms. Bing will then be added as a search engine under the name Live Search.

Internet Explorer users can also add Bing to the web browser by visiting this website. The user needs to perform a search on Bing for the word “TEST” and paste the url into the url form of the search engine creation page. The name can be selected by the user.

A click on the Install Search Provider button will display a confirmation window. If the user accepts the window Bing will be installed as a search engine in Internet Explorer.

Opera users can simply right-click the Bing search interface and select the Create Search option in the context menu to add Bing to the Internet browser.

Google Chrome users finally need to perform a search on Bing. A right-click on the address bar of the web browser will reveal the Edit Search Engines options. Bing should be visible right away in the menu.

The last step necessary is to make the Bing search engine a default search engine in the Google browser. This is done by selecting the Bing search engine in the menu and clicking on the Make Default button.

Tags: bing, firefox, google browser, google chrome, internet-explorer, opera, search engine, search provider

Microsoft Bing Search Is Live

Martin — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 09:17:54 +0000

Microsoft’s new search engine has created some buzz since its introduction a few days earlier. The search engine is now live for everyone to test. It has to be noted that Microsoft seems to have it optimized for English speaking users from the United States and the United Kingdom who get more functionality than someone from Germany or France.

Users from the United States get on-page previews of the contents of each site by hovering the mouse cursor over a search result while users from unsupported countries do not get these previews. The previews can contain up to five links to other content of the site which is an interesting feature as search engines usually limit the exposure to one or two links to a site on each page. Many aspects of Bing look like Google Search. There are sponsored advertisements on top of the search results pages and on the left. Bing will also add related content like images where appropriate to the results.

Bing categorizes search results where appropriate. A search for New York will start with all results on the top and display categories like maps, weather, travel or attractions below each with a handful of search results. This is actually an interesting concept as it might aid inexperienced users in their search. Experienced users on the other hand will perform targeted searches to find the information they are looking for.

Bing will display the categories, related searches and the search history on the left. The image search of Bing displays image results on an infinite scrolling page with options to filter images by size, layout, color, style or people. A virtual map can be displayed which is really interesting for location based searches. It will for instance link pictures to locations on the map.

Bing Video search makes it possible to play videos directly on the results page. This can be done by hovering the mouse over a video or by clicking on the play button that appears when hovering over the video. Videos can also be filtered by length, resolution, screen size or source.

Bing offers some comfort function and elements that users will not find using Google Search. It seems to be targeting English speaking users only at this point as they can access features that users from non-English speaking countries cannot (unless they change their country to USA or UK). Everything on the other hand comes down to the quality of the search results. Bing seems to have improved over Windows Live, especially for popular search terms.

Tags: bin search, bing, google search, microsoft, microsoft bing, microsoft search, search engine, windows search

Microsoft Bing

Martin — Thu, 28 May 2009 19:22:26 +0000

Every computer blog seems to have written an article about Microsoft Bing, the new Microsoft search engine that was formerly known as Kumo. No one except for Microsoft employees and probably a few partners have actually tested the search engine yet which makes it impossible to give it a first rating.

Microsoft surely has the work power and knowledge to create a search engine that could even the field. Bing however seems to be different from what people expected when they first heard about the new search engine. A short presentation video that has been published today gives a glimpse of the interface and functionality of the search engine.

The video concentrates on business, shopping, travel and health all very profitable niches but reveals little information about the aspects of the search engine that interest most users. The quality of the results can only be measured in tests once the search engine is accessible. The integrated features look interesting but might only appeal to a minority of users online.

We took a new approach to go beyond search to build what we call a decision engine. With a powerful set of intuitive tools on top of a world class search service, Bing will help you make smarter, faster decisions. We included features that deliver the best results, presented in a more organized way to simplify key tasks and help you make important decisions faster.

And features like cashback, where we actually give you money back on great products, and Price Predictor, which actually tells you when to buy an airline ticket in order to help get you the best price — help you make smarter decisions, and put money back in your pocket.

The Bing search engine is said to go live in the coming days.

Tags: bing, bing search, kumo, microsoft bing, microsoft search, search engine

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