Bing Blogs

Bing Blogs

This is a place devoted to giving you deeper insight
into the news, trends, people and technology behind Bing.

Search Blog — Nov 2009

Nov

20

20 09

Friday’s Without Stefan and Free NFL Practice...

I am sitting here in the office wondering why the hallways are so quiet and it dawns on me….Stefan is not here. Which means two things, I can work without listening to him rock out to early 90’s greatest hits and that he is not here for me to film him for #FTF. So sadly all you get today is a short post from me. Which is actually not all that bad since today we actually have five SIGNED NFL practice jersey’s from some of the top players of the Seattle Seahawks to give away with the ever so coveted Bing t-shirts. Here are some of us from the office modeling the jerseys that we have to giveaway: Matt Hasselbeck #8 , Julius Jones #22 , Lofa Tatupu #51, Nate Burleson #81, T.J. Houshmandzadeh #84 For this week’s #FTF you have to follow the rules correctly. You need to tweet us a link to a search result ( See sunnyopen’s example below ) to @bing, include #FTF and @bing in your tweet, and your search result must be relevant to this week’s theme. Also, please include if you have a preference of jersey you are hoping to get in your tweet. We can’t promise that will make a difference but at least it will help us with allocating the winners.... Read More I am sitting here in the office wondering why the hallways are so quiet and it dawns on me….Stefan is not here. Which means two things, I can work without listening to him rock out to early 90’s greatest hits and that he is not here for me to film him for #FTF. So sadly all you get today is a short post from me. Which is actually not all that bad since today we actually have five SIGNED NFL practice jersey’s from some of the top players of the Seattle Seahawks to give away with the ever so coveted Bing t-shirts. Here are some of us from the office modeling the jerseys that... Read More
Nov

19

20 09

Get Inside Bing’s Head: See the Features...

Great news. All the new features we blogged about last week are live for 100% of our users. Many of you may have seen them over the past few days as the ramp progressed, but now everyone can take full advantage of the great work the team has done in this fall wave for Bing. I wanted to point that out because recently, to my complete surprise, I was told that all of you don’t follow every single one of Bing’s developments with breathless abandon. I had simply assumed that all of you had alerts on this blog complete with a hacked-up method of automatically sending texts to your mobile devices whenever some nugget of search wisdom materializes on the blog. Apparently I was wrong. My wife drove this point home to me a few weeks ago when grilling me about just exactly it is that I do at work all day. I stared at her dumbly – more so than usual – and said, “you know, I work on Bing! All those new features we’ve launched since June that map to those unmet customer needs you always hear me talking about.” (yes, bizarrely, I do talk about unmet customer needs in search way too often. I’m pretty sure even my daughter knows that stat about... Read More Great news. All the new features we blogged about last week are live for 100% of our users. Many of you may have seen them over the past few days as the ramp progressed, but now everyone can take full advantage of the great work the team has done in this fall wave for Bing. I wanted to point that out because recently, to my complete surprise, I was told that all of you don’t follow every single one of Bing’s developments with breathless abandon. I had simply assumed that all of you had alerts on this blog complete with a hacked-up method of automatically sending texts to your mobile... Read More
Nov

17

20 09

Making a List and Checking it Twice

With just 38 days left until Christmas, I’m sure I’m one of many who is frantically making shopping lists, planning trips to the mall, and researching the hottest toys and deals for the season. (Please visit the site to view this video) Luckily Bing cashback continues to welcome new retailers to make it easier for all of us to get our shopping done, including Macy’s, and you know what they say “everything’s better at Macy’s”. And right now you can get 5% off any purchase from Macys.com when you buy through Bing cashback . (Please visit the site to view this video) For those on your list that are hard to shop for/have everything already, head to Bing cashback to get 5% off your Home Depot purchases, including gift cards. Maybe I’ll get my father-in-law one of those new auto-hammers (and I may need to pick up one of those inflatable snow globes for my own front yard too). We have also just welcomed GSI Commerce to the Bing cashback program. GSI is an e-commerce provider for hundreds of merchants, including GNC and Dicks Sporting Goods . Are there any babies or kids on your shopping list? For a limited time you can now save... Read More With just 38 days left until Christmas, I’m sure I’m one of many who is frantically making shopping lists, planning trips to the mall, and researching the hottest toys and deals for the season. (Please visit the site to view this video) Luckily Bing cashback continues to welcome new retailers to make it easier for all of us to get our shopping done, including Macy’s, and you know what they say “everything’s better at Macy’s”. And right now you can get 5% off any purchase from Macys.com when you buy through Bing cashback . (Please visit the site... Read More
Nov

13

20 09

Free T-Shirt Friday and Stefan…Again

The sun is out in the PNW and you know what that means? No? Ok, I don’t either. But is it Friday, which means it is time for another Friday’s With Stefan and Free T-Shirt Friday. Find the best related query to this week's theme and send it to us on twitter at @bing and include the hash-tag #FTF. Last week’s winners of #FTF and the free copy of Windows 7 are below. They all gave great query suggestions and included the link to the query! Well done! Please DM us your mailing address and your shirt size and we will get them off to you via the snail mail. kensm : @bing "Baseball was, is and always will be to me the best game in the world." - Babe Ruth http://bit.ly/22Ww2A #FTF luv_mydachshund : @bing #FTF - http://bit.ly/3b7pV6 empresschang : @bing Time for some fun with Baseball Bloopers [Videos] http://bit.ly/2EHG5B #FTF priesmeyer : @bing #FTF It's as American as baseball & apple pie. http://bit.ly/2V7PwS joshuawrichards : @Bing #FTF Many consider the 1991 World Series the best ever. 4 Games Decided in last at-bat, 3 go into extra innings http://bit.ly/BINGFTF talverion : @bing "baseball how-to AND Stats AND world series" - http... Read More The sun is out in the PNW and you know what that means? No? Ok, I don’t either. But is it Friday, which means it is time for another Friday’s With Stefan and Free T-Shirt Friday. Find the best related query to this week's theme and send it to us on twitter at @bing and include the hash-tag #FTF. Last week’s winners of #FTF and the free copy of Windows 7 are below. They all gave great query suggestions and included the link to the query! Well done! Please DM us your mailing address and your shirt size and we will get them off to you via the snail mail. kensm : @bing "Baseball... Read More
Nov

13

20 09

MSN and Bing Getting Up Close and Personal...

Holy Twilight-mania! I attempted to look for information on Twilight and there are, well, hundreds if not thousands of Twilight sites out there, I found myself buried in a torrent of Twilight hysteria. I mean, I have heard about this phe-nom but did not truly, culturally, philosophically understand it until today. So in the midst of my Twilight research I found some pretty cool stuff that we’ve done across MSN and Bing that brings a ton of unique Twilight information together into one place. So here’s the scoop: MSN Movies is sharing a very special – and exclusive - Twilight experience using Silverlight and Bing Maps to take fans on a Twilight video tour. The tour brings fans to Forks, Washington to see all the cool locations from Twilight and New Moon , such as the Cullen house , Fork’s Police Station , Fork’s Hospital , the book store , and the high school . Just scroll over the Bing Map for location-based navigation and check out all of the crazy information that pops up. In addition to the interactive map, check out some of MSN’s other exciting features including Bella’s birthday celebration, vampire makeover tips, interviews with... Read More Holy Twilight-mania! I attempted to look for information on Twilight and there are, well, hundreds if not thousands of Twilight sites out there, I found myself buried in a torrent of Twilight hysteria. I mean, I have heard about this phe-nom but did not truly, culturally, philosophically understand it until today. So in the midst of my Twilight research I found some pretty cool stuff that we’ve done across MSN and Bing that brings a ton of unique Twilight information together into one place. So here’s the scoop: MSN Movies is sharing a very special – and exclusive - Twilight... Read More
Nov

12

20 09

“Look kids! Big Ben…House of Parliament...

When you search for Football, what kind of answers do you expect to find. Well, I guess it depends on where you are doing the asking, if you are in the UK you probably don’t want to see NFL schedules. You probably mean what we in the US call soccer. Well today, millions of searchers in the UK can rest assured that Bing knows what they are talking about. We are excited to announce today that Bing in the UK is shedding its beta tag. We want to congratulate our pals over in the UK on a huge milestone. You can now use Bing to make faster more informed choices on a daily basis. Oh, and the next Manchester United game is on the 21 st of November at 17:30 GMT (that’s 5:30 p.m. for us Yanks), in case you were wondering. Some of the great features for Bing users in the UK are: The daily Bing Homepage image and hotspots are something that now will be localized in the UK, with unique imagery and hotspots. Visual Search using visual images and metadata to make search more visual and more compelling. More Instant Answers. Get quick response answers and results to searches, such as how is Liverpool doing in the Premiership or which tourist attraction should I take my in... Read More When you search for Football, what kind of answers do you expect to find. Well, I guess it depends on where you are doing the asking, if you are in the UK you probably don’t want to see NFL schedules. You probably mean what we in the US call soccer. Well today, millions of searchers in the UK can rest assured that Bing knows what they are talking about. We are excited to announce today that Bing in the UK is shedding its beta tag. We want to congratulate our pals over in the UK on a huge milestone. You can now use Bing to make faster more informed choices on a daily basis. Oh, and the next... Read More
Nov

11

20 09

In His Own Words: Stephen Wolfram on Computational...

You have (hopefully) read our post on our exciting collaboration between Bing and Wolfram|Alpha to bring some of the amazing computational knowledge of Wolfram|Alpha into the Bing experience. We had the privilege of sitting down and talking with none other than Stephen Wolfram himself a few weeks back to get his take on this exciting challenge of making more of the world’s knowledge computable. Below are some excerpts from that conversation, we hope you will enjoy them. Clip 1 caption. Stephen on the platform vision behind Wolfram|Alpha, and how that fits in with Bing. (Please visit the site to view this video) Clip 2 caption. Stephen explains how the pieces come together inside Wolfram|Alpha (Please visit the site to view this video) Clip 3 caption. Stephen talks about how exciting it is that we can begin do something this ambitious. (Please visit the site to view this video) Adam Sohn - Bing Other post of interest: How Many Calories in a Burger? What’s 2^2^2^2^2? Bing and Wolfram|Alpha Have the Answers Read More You have (hopefully) read our post on our exciting collaboration between Bing and Wolfram|Alpha to bring some of the amazing computational knowledge of Wolfram|Alpha into the Bing experience. We had the privilege of sitting down and talking with none other than Stephen Wolfram himself a few weeks back to get his take on this exciting challenge of making more of the world’s knowledge computable. Below are some excerpts from that conversation, we hope you will enjoy them. Clip 1 caption. Stephen on the platform vision behind Wolfram|Alpha, and how that fits in with Bing. (Please visit... Read More
Nov

11

20 09

How Many Calories in a Burger? What’s 2...

One of the things we’ve tried to do with Bing is to bring customers the information they are looking for, presented in a useful way. If we can adequately infer a user’s intent, we can bring them a much more compelling experience than an endless list of links. We can bring them real knowledge and get them closer to the answer they were looking for or the decision they were trying to make. At Bing, this journey began with our work on answers, and we continue to try hard to deliver the best answers we can, based on our estimation of query intent. Flight information, local weather, sports scores and stats are some of the early examples of these types of experiences. But we believe lots more can be done for our customers. Today we are excited to unveil some work we have been doing with Wolfram|Alpha . Started in May 2009 by noted scientist Stephen Wolfram, Wolfram|Alpha is an ambitious (and very cool) project to, as the company’s website says, “make all systematic knowledge immediately computable by anyone.” This notion of creating and presenting computational knowledge in search results is one of the more exciting things going on in search (and beyond... Read More One of the things we’ve tried to do with Bing is to bring customers the information they are looking for, presented in a useful way. If we can adequately infer a user’s intent, we can bring them a much more compelling experience than an endless list of links. We can bring them real knowledge and get them closer to the answer they were looking for or the decision they were trying to make. At Bing, this journey began with our work on answers, and we continue to try hard to deliver the best answers we can, based on our estimation of query intent. Flight information, local weather, sports... Read More
Nov

10

20 09

Bing’s Next Chapter Begins Today

When Bing launched back in June, our aim was to bring innovation to search in three important areas: Provide great results to help reduce the amount of time people spend searching and clicking on bad links Offer a richer, more organized experience to help people refine questions they ask of search engines as well as and provide innovative experiences based on what users are trying to accomplish Develop tools that help simplify key tasks, specifically around shopping, travel, local and health, given that search is the place many people go first to make decisions. The product that we delivered was centered on these principles and your responses to it have made us smile and cringe at different times as people express delight with some features and dismay at others. We’re also happy to see that so many of you know about the product - research tells us 4 in 10 know Bing is Microsoft’s search engine – and are happy to see us continuing to earn your queries in a very crowded search market. Since June we’ve released a bunch of new stuff to try and meet the demands of our users – Twitter integration, Visual Search, Twitter Search, better maps... Read More When Bing launched back in June, our aim was to bring innovation to search in three important areas: Provide great results to help reduce the amount of time people spend searching and clicking on bad links Offer a richer, more organized experience to help people refine questions they ask of search engines as well as and provide innovative experiences based on what users are trying to accomplish Develop tools that help simplify key tasks, specifically around shopping, travel, local and health, given that search is the place many people go first to make decisions. The product that... Read More
Nov

10

20 09

Bringing the Best of Web Video to You at...

Turn off the lights (literally), share with your friends and kick back…you are about to see the latest Bing videos experience. Starting today and rolling out over the next few days Bing videos will provide a new unified online video destination that delivers a comprehensive, organized, and high-quality video experience. This change will combine the powerful search experience of Bing, with the expertise of MSN video all into one destination. With the New Bing Video you can now access videos from across the web, MSN’s array of high-quality videos, and videos from sites such as Hulu, ABC, and Youtube. Bing videos viewing options are nearly endless. Check out the cool new home page which makes it easy to search and browse for the videos you want to see. With over 900+ T.V. shows in Bing Videos, I can’t wait to catch up on my favorite shows, discover new favorites and watch right from my laptop. We’ve gone deeper with organization, making it easy to find your favorite episode, even from last season! And now with the new viewing experience, the ability to share videos and the dim the lights feature, watching videos online... Read More Turn off the lights (literally), share with your friends and kick back…you are about to see the latest Bing videos experience. Starting today and rolling out over the next few days Bing videos will provide a new unified online video destination that delivers a comprehensive, organized, and high-quality video experience. This change will combine the powerful search experience of Bing, with the expertise of MSN video all into one destination. With the New Bing Video you can now access videos from across the web, MSN’s array of high-quality videos, and videos from sites such... Read More