Microsoft’s Bing Search Engine Gets A Facelift
Microsoft is carrying out major changes in the front end of its Bing search engine. Among other things, social networks are better integrated and users can perform more tasks directly from the search.
Last week, Microsoft announced a new version of Bing where social networks are more involved in the search results. As an example, Bing automatically searches Facebook friends if they know a certain topic you are searching for. If the search is for a holiday and a Facebook friend has uploaded pictures of that destination, then you are given that suggestion from Bing. Also relevant opinions of “experts” from sites like Twitter, Foursquare, LinkedIn and even Google + are presented to the user.
Results of the searches for the new version Bing are divided into three columns. With the right column reserved for the social features. In the left column are the classic search results, while the middle column shows information that Microsoft itself has collected.
If the search is for a restaurant, users will receive information on the restaurant’s contact number, the menu and cleanliness plus the ability to make a reservation. The middle column is initially displayed only when it is clear that a user wants to perform a certain task, for example when searching for a restaurant, hotel or movie. Microsoft has indicated that later this service will be expanded.
The new version should be available in early June for U.S. online users. Other countries in the rest of the world will have to wait for the new version of Bing and it is not clear when Microsoft will roll it out.
With the new version, Microsoft will once again truly attempt to compete with Google. Now that the search engine giants have a social media integration to compete with each other, it should be interesting as to how well these new features will perform.
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