Search Blog

Bing says G’day Mate from Sydney Australia!

2009-11-27T11:31:00Z

Some folks take coals to Newcastle – I take beer bottle openers to Australia. Though I’m officially on vacation, we Bing folks never really rest, especially when there’s an opportunity to spread Bing love via beer. Constant vigilance is our watchword!

So the place I got to share the Bing love was Silicon Beach drinks at the Grace Hotel in Sydney. While others spent their Friday-after-Thanksgiving bloated from turkey and football overdoses, I got to hang out with about 50-60 folks from IT, start-up starters, programmers, designers, and general populace at the 77Bar on the Mezzanine level. The chats were amazing...Australian startup culture is very different than in the United States - the state of venture capital and angel funding is different, and the government plays a unique role.

Here's a pic as the party was getting started - later on our section of the bar was hard to move around in.

And lest folks in Silicon Valley think we forget all about them when we go to Silicon Beach, the Techcrunch50 Startup t-shirt I sported was GlideHealth a startup that helps doctors manage patient information from their mobile phones. Made sense when going to a country where “country doctor” could mean flying or helicoptering into the bush to find your patients.

Besides the beer bottle openers, I left ouf piles of Bing stickers - when we closed down for the night I realized people weren't fooling around with putting them on their laptops - they were WEARING them out to the pubs they hit next! The fellow second from the right in white shirt is Bart Jellema, the original organizer of these events. He noted with pride (and others confirmed) there are events Sydney tech folks can go to pretty much any day of the week - their scene is really picking up.

Big thanks to everyone for making the event a success!

Betsy Aoki, Senior Program Manager, Bing

Are you seeing gold yet?!

2009-11-27T08:01:00Z

Are you sitting down? Do you have your coffee in hand? Well! Let the holiday shopping begin!

Go to www.bing.com/cashback to start your holiday shopping off right. Below is a list of the participating merchants in this year’s Bing cashback Holiday Gold Rush promotion, which kicks off today.

AT&T/MEC	35%
Barnes & Noble.com	14%
Best Buy	10%
Buy.com	5%
Circuit City	12.2% (search) and 8% (Bing shopping)*
Dell	20%
drugstore.com	20%
eBags	30%
eBay	10%
Endless.com	20%
Foot Locker/eastbay	25%
Home Depot	8%
HP	20%
Kohl's	10%
Lenovo	20%
Macy's	10%
Overstock.com	15%
Sears	13%
Sephora	20%
Shoebuy	20%
The Gap	10%
TigerDirect	12.2% (search) and 8% (Bing shopping)*
T-Mobile	35%
Walmart	15%

Holiday shopping without the lines…getting money back…can’t get much better than this!

Happy shopping,

Kelly Scott – Bing shopping

*These merchants have two Bing cashback percentages. The percentage you receive is determined by how you enter the Bing cashback experience – through searching for products on Bing.com or going directly to the store on Bing shopping.

Other posts of interest:

Making a List and checking it Twice

Mark your calendars…A Gold Rush is coming

The 12th Man really came to play last week!

2009-11-25T20:08:00Z

Wow! We had an amazing response for last week’s #FTF Seahawks practice jersey giveaway. Thank you to everyone who took the time to play.

We had some pretty imaginative search results sent to us so picking out the winners was very hard! We wanted to pick a group of winners that were different yet told a well rounded story of the Seattle Seahawks. Some serious, some funny but all together it is what makes the Seattle Seahawks and their fans so great.

Jersey	Winner	Search Term
Matt Hasselbeck #8	larao68 @bing #FTF seahawks playoff mustache http://www.bing.com/search?q=seahawks+playoff+mustache&FORM=BWFD // Red number 8 plz	Seahawks playoff mustache
Julius Jones #22	frogger097 @bing - http://www.bing.com/search?q=Seattle+seahawk+tailgating+food&FORM=BWFD #FTF I'd love Jones or Burleson! Go Hawks! 12th Man!	Seattle Seahawk tailgating food
Lofa Tatupu #51	Hawaii2333 @bing - http://www.bing.com/search?q=Seattle+Seahawks+Giving+Back+to+Community&go=&form=QBRE&qs=n #FTF & 1st choice would be #51 Thanks!	Seattle Seahawks Giving Back to Community
Nate Burleson #81	ralphdweck @bing #FTF http://www.bing.com/search?q=the+seattle+seahawks+all-time+records&go=&form=QBRE&qs=n ... hope i can get the burleson 81	the Seattle Seahawks all-time records
T.J. Houshmandzadeh #84	pdxphotogeek @bing #ftf loudest fans in the nfl? Hint - 12th man http://www.bing.com/search?q=loudest+stadium+nfl&go=&form=QBRE&qs=n	Loudest Stadium NFL

If you won, please DM us on twitter your shirt size for your Bing T-Shirt as well as your mailing address and we will get them in the mail to you as soon as possible.

Thanks again to everyone who played and to the Seattle Seahawks for giving us their jerseys!

We hope you all have a great holiday!

Kristin Meldahl – Bing

*Please note: we will be taking a break from #FTF this week for the holidays

Other posts of interest:

Friday’s Without Stefan and Free NFL Practice Jersey Friday

Kicking off Free T-Shirt Friday (rules and regulations)

Bing – Making someone’s travel day that much easier

2009-11-25T00:51:00Z

If you happen to have been at an airport today (which is more than likely) and if you were flying in or out of Seattle or Boston you might have seen some of our fellow Bing team members out there giving people a hand with their luggage….and when I say hand I don’t mean helping them carry their luggage to the check-in counter...what I mean is the Bing team was handing out $15 pre-loaded Mastercards to help with your baggage fees or a little treat at the airport for your trip.

For more details on this and for some great tips on how to make traveling over the holidays easier make sure you read the Bing travel blog.

Happy Travels,

Kristin Meldahl - Bing

A little holiday spending money…a little trivia…

2009-11-25T00:50:00Z

Time is of the essence when it comes to holiday shopping and each year my “to buy for” list keeps getting longer and longer…one thing that could help me is a little extra holiday spending money. Luckily, starting Friday the Bing cashback team will be hosting the Bing cashback Holiday Trivia sweepstakes from the @bingcashback twitter handle where you can enter to win some serious spending money!

For twelve days Bing cashback will post a question via twitter that you will have one hour to search the internet for the right answer. All you need to do is tweet your answer to @bingcashback and include #Bingholiday for the chance to win a $250 Master Card cash card. On the twelfth day you can play for a chance to win a $500 Master Card cash card.*

So if you are one of those trivia types and could use some extra cash this holiday season follow the Bing cashback team on twitter and facebook starting Friday, November 27 through December 8, 2009.

Don’t forget…the Bing cashback holiday Gold Rush starts Friday as well!

Good luck and happy holiday shopping,

Kristin Meldahl – Bing

*No purchase necessary. Open only to legal residents of the 50 US and DC 18+.

Other posts of interest:

Mark your calendars…A Gold Rush is coming

Making a List and Checking it Twice

MICROSOFT BING CASHBACK HOLIDAY TRIVIA SWEEPSTAKES

OFFICIAL RULES

COMMON TERMS USED IN THESE RULES:

These are the official rules that govern how the Microsoft Bing cashback Holiday Trivia Sweepstakes promotion will operate (“Sweepstakes”).

In these rules, “we,” “our,” and “us” refer to Microsoft Corporation, the sponsor of this Sweepstakes. “You” refers to an eligible Sweepstakes entrant.

WHAT ARE THE START AND END DATES?

This Sweepstakes starts at 12:01 a.m. Pacific Time (PT) on Nov. 27, 2009, and ends at 11:59 p.m. PT on Dec. 8, 2009 (“Entry Period”) and consists of 12 separate Daily Prize Periods. For the purposes of this Sweepstakes, each Daily Prize Period will start at 12:01 a.m. PT and end at 11:59 p.m. PT.

CAN I ENTER?

You are eligible to enter this Sweepstakes if you meet the following requirements at time entry:

· You are a legal resident of the 50 United States and District of Columbia, and are 18 years of age or older; and

· You are NOT an employee of Microsoft Corporation or an employee of a Microsoft subsidiary; and

· You are NOT involved in any part of the administration and execution of this Sweepstakes; and

· You are NOT an immediate family (parent, sibling, spouse, child) or household member of a Microsoft employee, an employee of a Microsoft subsidiary, or a person involved in any part of the administration and execution of this Sweepstakes.

This Sweepstakes is void outside the geographic area described above and wherever else prohibited by law.

At one randomly determined time during each Daily Prize Period, a Bing cashback related question will be posted via the Bing Cashback Twitter feed @bingcashback. To submit an eligible entry, you must respond via a “tweet” with the correct answer within 60 minutes from when the question was posted. All answers may be found by searching online at http://www.bing.com/shopping

The tweet should include the following three elements: “#Bingholiday” “@bingcashback” and “[correct answer here]”

We will only accept one (1) entry per person per Daily Prize Period. Non-winning entries will not be rolled over into subsequent Daily Prize Periods; you must enter each drawing separately.

We are not responsible for entries that we do not receive for any reason, or for entries that we receive but are not decipherable for any reason.

We will automatically disqualify:

· Any incomplete or illegible entry; and

· Any entries that we receive from you that are in excess of the entry limit described above.

Following the end of each Daily Prize Period one (1) winner will be randomly selected from among all eligible entries received to win a prize as follows:

Daily Prize (Day 1 - 11): A $250 Master Card cash card

Grand Prize (Day 12): A $500 Master Card cash card.

Limit one prize per person during the Entry Period. The total Approximate Retail Value (ARV) of all prizes: $3,250

If you are a potential winner, we will notify you by sending a direct message to you via Twitter to request your e-mail address, phone number, and mailing address (if any) within seven (7) days following winner selection. If the notification that we send is returned as undeliverable, or you are otherwise unreachable for any reason, we may award to a runner-up.

If there is a dispute as to who is the potential winner, we will consider the potential winner to be the authorized account holder of the Twitter handle used to enter the Sweepstakes. If you are a potential winner, we may require you to sign an Affidavit of Eligibility, Liability/Publicity Release and a W-9 tax form or W-8 BEN tax form within 10 days of notification. If you are a potential winner and you are 18 or older, but are considered a minor in your place of legal residence, we may require your parent or legal guardian to sign all required forms on your behalf. If you do not complete the required forms as instructed and/or return the required forms within the time period listed on the winner notification message, we may disqualify you and select a runner-up.

If you are confirmed as a winner of this Sweepstakes:

You may not exchange your prize for cash or any other merchandise or services. However, if for any reason an advertised prize is unavailable, we reserve the right to substitute a prize of equal or greater value; and

You may not designate someone else as the winner. If you are unable or unwilling to accept your prize, we may award it to a runner up; and

If you accept a prize, you will be solely responsible for all applicable taxes related to accepting the prize; and

If you are otherwise eligible for this Sweepstakes, but are considered a minor in your place of residence, we may award the prize to your parent/legal guardian on your behalf; and

Unless otherwise noted, all prizes are subject to their manufacturer’s warranty and / or terms and conditions.

By entering this Sweepstakes you agree:

· To abide by these Official Rules; and

· To release and hold harmless Microsoft and its respective parents, subsidiaries, affiliates, employees and agents from any and all liability or any injury, loss or damage of any kind arising from or in connection with this Sweepstakes, or any prize won; and

· That Microsoft’s decisions will be final and binding on all matters related to this Sweepstakes; and

· That, by accepting a prize, Microsoft may use of your proper name and state of residence online and in print, or in any other media, in connection with this Sweepstakes, without payment or compensation to you, except where prohibited by law.

WHAT LAWS GOVERN THE WAY THIS SWEEPSTAKES IS EXECUTED AND ADMINISTRATED?

This Sweepstakes will be governed by the laws of the State of Washington, and you consent to the exclusive jurisdiction and venue of the courts of the State of Washington for any disputes arising out of this Sweepstakes.

If someone cheats, or a virus, bug, catastrophic event, or any other unforeseen or unexpected event that cannot be reasonably anticipated or controlled, (also referred to as force majeure) affects the fairness and / or integrity of this Sweepstakes, we reserve the right to cancel, change or suspend this Sweepstakes. This right is reserved whether the event is due to human or technical error. If a solution cannot be found to restore the integrity of the Sweepstakes, we reserve the right to select winners from among all eligible entries received before we had to cancel, change or suspend the Sweepstakes.

If you attempt to compromise the integrity or the legitimate operation of this Sweepstakes by hacking or by cheating or committing fraud in ANY way, we may seek damages from you to the fullest extent permitted by law. Further, we may ban you from participating in any of our future Sweepstakes, so please play fairly.

HOW CAN I FIND OUT WHO WON?

We will post the names of winners who received a prize worth $25.00 or more online at http://www.bing.com/community/blogs/search/. This list will remain posted one month after Dec. 8, 2009.

WHO IS SPONSORING THIS SWEEPSTAKESSWEEPSTAKES?

Microsoft Corporation

One Microsoft Way

Redmond, WA 98052

Bing™ for mobile availability continues to grow

2009-11-24T15:20:00Z

Mobile momentum continues and this is a big one: the new Bing application is now available for BlackBerry™ Curve devices in the US.

When you buy a new BlackBerry Curve 2 (8530) from Verizon, you’ll get the Bing app automatically. If you have another type of Curve, head over to m.bing.com/download with your phone to download the app.

People were excited about the Bing app on BlackBerry Storm and we can’t wait to hear from you about having Bing on your Curve.

Here’s the full list of BlackBerry Smartphones that can now get the Bing app:

• Curve

• Curve 2

• Curve World Edition

• Storm

• Storm 2

Justin Jed – Bing for Mobile

Other posts of interest:

Bing for mobile now live at m.bing.com

Mobile Madness Round 2… Then and Now

Use Your Voice to Text, Call and Search with Bing

Mobile Madness is Upon Us

Committed to Comprehensive Results

2009-11-21T02:26:00Z

There’s been some buzz today based on a post by Nicholas D. Kristof at the New York Times suggesting that Bing filters results for searches conducted outside of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) using Simplified Chinese characters for their query.

As Mr. Kristof reported over the summer, we did fix a bug in web search that addressed this issue. There are some queries that provide very balanced web results, for example 六四天安门 (June 4^th Tiananmen). We recognize that we can continue to improve our relevancy and comprehensiveness in these web results and we will.

In addition, today’s investigations uncovered the fact that our image search is not functioning properly for queries entered using Simplified Chinese characters outside of the PRC. We have identified the bug and are at work on the fix. We expect to have this done before the Thanksgiving holiday.

Bing’s intent for these types of queries is to provide relevant and comprehensive results for our customers.

We appreciate the dialog that Mr. Kristof has kicked off. Community feedback and input is incredibly important to Bing – it helps us do better and sometimes alerts us to things we can take immediate action to fix as we continue to improve.

Adam Sohn – Senior Director, Bing

Mark your calendars…A Gold Rush is coming

2009-11-20T21:02:00Z

I have never been one to wake up the morning after Thanksgiving to go and wait in a line at the mall for those crazy holiday shopping deals. As much as I have thought about it, the idea of sitting outside at 2AM in the freezing cold still trying to wake up from my Thanksgiving dinner food coma never really sounded that pleasing. Well things have certainly changed. Now I can take advantage of some great holiday savings right from the comfort of my very own home.

Starting on November 27, Bing cashback will be offering increased discounts at a select number of merchants. There will be some pretty attractive savings at retailers like Macy’s, Home Depot, Dell, and many more.

So Friday morning after you have had your first of many leftover thanksgiving sandwiches, don’t worry about getting ready to go to the mall, just grab a laptop, a cup of coffee, your wallet, and a seat on your favorite couch and start your holiday shopping!

Make sure you are following the Bing cashback team on Twitter and Facebook for all the latest details.

Kristin Meldahl – The eager holiday shopper

Other posts of interest:

Making a List and Checking it Twice

Bing cashback 101

Friday’s Without Stefan and Free NFL Practice Jersey Friday

2009-11-20T18:58:00Z

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.

Since the prize this week is not only the Bing t-shirts but these awesome Seahawk’s practice jerseys, the theme of the week is “The Seattle Seahawks.” So go and start searching for what you think is a relevant search query for the Seattle Seahawks and shoot us a tweet…good luck!! And a huge THANKS to the Seattle Seahawks for the practice jerseys! WAY COOL!

The winners from last week’s Twilight mania #FTF are below, make sure you DM us your size and snail mail address and we will get your Bing t-shirts in the mail for you:

sunnyopen: @bing #FTF things to know about Twilight - http://bit.ly/4DhHdW

virus84: @bing #FTF Who's the author of "Twilight" ?

tannawings: @bing http://bit.ly/2wC4Ks #FTF

luv_mydachshund: @bing - Search Results - http://bit.ly/2Q6skg #FTF

Happy Friday!

Kristin Meldahl

Other post of interest:

Kicking off Free T-Shirt Friday (rules and regulations)

Get Inside Bing’s Head: See the Features You’ve Only Heard About

2009-11-19T23:43:00Z

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 successful algorithmic query clicks). My wife, who is a computer science and math major and not unskilled in the ways of the interwebs, said “yeah, well there’s too much news out there about search. It makes it hard for me to see what’s new.”

That’s it. A challenge was laid down. A challenge from which I could only escape by a) avoiding my wife by traveling a lot or b) building something which would help people see what’s new in search and particularly what’s new in Bing. I chose both, but that’s another post.

So we have launched Behind Bing as a way to help people see what’s new and notable in this wave of innovation from Bing. You can see each feature in action though a screencast, see me talk about why we did it the way we did (for those who like to geek out), and get some drill-down details. For those of you pressed for time, check out “Features for You” at the bottom of the site which highlights some features that I thought were especially cool depending on what and where you are.

There, honey. You’re welcome.

Stefan Weitz

Making a List and Checking it Twice

2009-11-18T00:52:00Z

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 media)

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 media)

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 25% at BabyUniverse and eToys.

There’s more cashback deals coming, so keep an eye out here, and follow us on Twitter and Facebook so you get the scoop.

Here are two of my favorite deals that just came through and are only available for a limited time, so get shopping:

Endless Shoe/Boot Promo - Spend $125 get $25 off

Endless Kids Fall Promo - Spend $80 get $20 off

Happy shopping and don’t forget to check your list twice!

Kelly Scott, cashback Product Manager

Other posts of interest:

The Savings on Bing cashback are “Endless”

Bing cashback 101

Free T-Shirt Friday and Stefan…Again

2009-11-13T22:29:00Z

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://tinyurl.com/yjf4tsk This was helpful for me: http://tinyurl.com/2rdh58 #FTF
justag33k: @bing #FTF I have always been fascinated by the 'First Pitch' and I think it is a tradition that gets overlooked http://bit.ly/2SIvyA

This week’s #FTF Episode:

(Please visit the site to view this media)

Sorry…we ran out of room on our camera….the theme of the week is…Twilight! Anything and everything to do with the Twilight movie and book series. Find the best search results using Bing and send us a tweet with the link to the query (great examples above).

Happy Friday!

Kristin Meldahl - Bing

MSN and Bing Getting Up Close and Personal with New Moon and Twilight

2009-11-13T19:28:00Z

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 the cast, and the transformation of the city of Forks, Washington has into a "Twihard" haven.

The Twilight connections are running deep over here, Bing also asked Twilight fans to submit questions via Facebook that Ryan Seacrest could ask the cast on Monday at the premier of New Moon. Check the Bing Facebook site for updates on Tuesday for answers to the questions that were submitted. If you missed your chance to get your question asked there is still time, just tweet @MSN_Entertain with your questions and get the chance to win a signed Twilight poster!

Now that I am a legit Twilight fan I am going to be checking out the Twilight Superfans page, hope you do too.

Kristin Meldahl – Bing

Other post of interest:

Exclusive New Moon Video Footage on MSN Movies

Vampires + Bing Maps + Silverlight = So Hot Right Now

“Look kids! Big Ben…House of Parliament…”and Bing in the UK!

2009-11-13T00:22:00Z

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-laws to at the weekend?
See who or what is being chatted about real-time with a global live Twitter feed with Bing Twitter search.
Looking for the best deals? - There is now an integrated shopping experience with Ciao UK. With Bing you can search the Internet to find the best prices, reviews and local availability.
With insights from our Multimap users, Bing Maps now offers new map styles, imagery and transit integration as well as draggable routes.
Bing has been built for the UK to help consumers get to key local sites and services in fewer links by including popular links, search boxes and suggestions within best match.

A Huge Welcome to the Bing family to those in the UK!

Kristin Meldahl - Bing

Other post of interest:

Released: Bing Maps UK

In His Own Words: Stephen Wolfram on Computational Knowledge

2009-11-11T17:32:00Z

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 media)

Clip 2 caption. Stephen explains how the pieces come together inside Wolfram|Alpha

(Please visit the site to view this media)

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 media)

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