Guys, I love Bing, I really do. It's fast and it's fun, and the results are fantastic now.
My problem (and I guess it's my own fault... Or maybe my parents) is that I live in the UK.
I don't understand how, as an English speaking country, it's so difficult for us to get the same feature set that the US gets....
I know (working on software and online services myself) that there's a whole stack of issues when rolling out internationally, but we speak the same language which surely must make bits of this a whole bunch easier....
For example:
1. No webmaster section - How do you expect web designers (such as myself) to take Bing seriously when we have to webmaster section... There's no link to it! We have no webmasters toolbox, we have no way to manually submit a link... Surely, as a basic feature, EVERY country should get this... And being as there's no translation involved, surely at the very least English language countries should be seeing this now?
2. No community section - It's lucky I have bing.com/community bookmarked!!! Because we have no link to it either! We used to, up until a few weeks ago (when the top right drop down disappeared)... Our poor "more" section is limited to News, Images, Web, Video, Maps and XRank... Surely we should all be encouraged to communicate with you guys! Give us our link back!
At the very least, those features should be included. It's basic stuff to allow access (and to promote) your service to webmasters and to encourage a community. Please give us those back, at least!
3. And, whilst you're at it, there's a whole stack of other "US Only" features I'd love to see. In particular, your new Reference section (and "enhanced version" of all Wikipedia results) - seeing as Encarta's off at the end of the month, any chance of us seeing Bing Reference in the UK anytime soon?
4. I still think Bing Shopping and Maps.bing.com are both FAR superior (and much more attractive) than Multimap (which is *so* 1990s!!) and Ciao (which is plastered with those spammy adverts telling me I've just won a million pounds and to click here). Any chance at all you guys want to intergrate Ciao into a UK Bing Shopping (just as you did with the US version) and why not, whilst you're at it, pull the useful stuff out of Multimap and roll back out the international version of Maps.Bing.com - Multimap is so ugly, so cumbersome and lacks all the neat features of Bing Maps (Collections, photosynth, 3D).
5. Enhanced Results - We still have no grouping of results... If I type in "Taylor Swift" (not saying that I would, of course), all I see is All Results, Images and Video.... None of the "Tour Tickets", "Fan Club" categories that you guys in the US get. Surely, this is THE singular best feature of Bing... And yet I have to use the US version to see it....
I guess I'm just bitter and really should move state-side (heck, I want a Zune HD too) but any chance you could help us out in the meantime, at least until I can afford a plane ticket... (I'll use the US Bing Travel for it if you wish).
Ali
Ali:No webmaster section - How do you expect web designers (such as myself) to take Bing seriously when we have to webmaster section... There's no link to it!
Webmaster Tools can be found here http://www.bing.com/webmaster/
For all the other stuff - try posting here http://www.bing.com/community/forums/12250.aspx Although I suspect the rest will be rolled out globally when theyre ready......
Video Production UK | Viral Video Production London
Yes bing is a real innovation in search.. and you can enjoy the full feature in Bing-US website.
But they are working closly on Bing UK... and I am sure in a couple of month this would also be fully featured..