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Bing at Sundance: See What’s Happening at Sundance 2012

The Bing Team — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 23:20:00 GMT

Sundance 2012 is in full tilt at the Bing Bar. From amazing live performances from the likes of Drake, Jason Mraz, Grouplove and Cobra Starship to candid interviews with stars like Aziz Ansari, Kristen Bell, Paul Simon, Neil Young and Quincy Jones, we have captured all the action.

Check out a few videos below, visit www.bingsundance.com for all of the interviews and check out www.facebook.com/bing for livestreams of events as they happen.

- The Bing Team

Out with the Old, In with the New: Bing Takes Stock of 2011 and The Year Ahead

The Bing Team — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 16:00:00 GMT

A few weeks ago, we shared the top Bing searches for 2011 which captured a snapshot of the year’s most important people, places and moments in time.

With 2011 wrapping up and the New Year around the bend, we fielded a survey of over 1,000 U.S. adults on how they felt about 2011 and how they plan to ring in 2012. From resolutions to New Year’s Eve celebration plans, here’s what they had to say:

2011

This was a year of ups and downs. According to our survey, 65 percent of 18-24 year olds were positive about 2011 and are hoping for much of the same in the New Year.
However, 45-54 year olds were slightly less optimistic – 76 percent said that it was a hard year and they’re hoping 2012 will be better. Regardless of your attitude, make 2012 the year for you. Whether you’re job-hunting, planning a move or making room for another family member, Bing.com will help you navigate the year ahead.

RESOLUTION

Losing weight is the top New Year’s resolution for both men and women (35 and 47 percent, respectively), while 32 percent of respondents noted that they don’t plan to make a New Year’s resolution at all! From mapping out a new jogging route to finding the latest exercise equipment or healthy recipes, easily find inspiration for all your weight-loss needs on Bing.

NEW YEARS EVE CELEBRATION

· While city lights and urban glamor are synonymous with New Year’s Eve, 44 percent of respondents indicated that they would most like to spend the holiday at the beach, in the mountains, or somewhere away from the crowds this year. If you want to get away, use Bing Travel to find the hottest New Year’s Eve deals.

2012 WISHLIST

Be prepared to see quite a few tablet computers floating around in the New Year – 34 percent of respondents indicated it’s the number one piece of technology they would like to buy in 2012, followed by a 3-D Television (24 percent). For all your technology shopping needs, check out Bing.com/shopping for deals, reviews and the latest in must have gadgets.

CELEBRITIES

·When asked which celebrity they would like to spend New Year’s Eve with 35 percent of people said Sandra Bullock, while Katy Perry ranked second with 14 percent, and Prince Harry came in third (12 percent).
George Clooney’s classic style will be guiding New Year’s Eve fashion choices for 46 percent of men this year, while the ladies will be modeling their choices after Pippa Middleton (33 percent).
Three of Hollywood’s leading ladies are the epitome of health and fitness, inspiring many to strive for the same. According to the survey, respondents plan to mirror their New Year’s resolution diet plans after Jennifer Lopez (26 percent), Gwyneth Paltrow (23 percent) and Jennifer Hudson (20 percent). And it’s no surprise that Jennifer Hudson made the list, as Weight Watchers – Hudson’s current role as celebrity spokesperson – took the crown for most searched diet plan on Bing in 2011.
Watching your favorite artist perform on December 31st is a great way to celebrate the New Year. When asked who they would most like to see, 20 percent of people said Carrie Underwood. Others top acts included Adele and Tony Bennett who tied for second place with 16 percent.
The eponymous holiday movie “New Year’s Eve” features an exhaustive list of stars celebrating the year-end holiday, but Katherine Heigl stands out as the one people would most like to party with this year (26 percent), followed closely by Sarah Jessica Parker (25 percent) and Ashton Kutcher (20 percent).

Happy New Year!

- Kari Dilloo, Bing

Bing on Xbox: The Future of Entertainment Search

The Bing Team — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 05:01:00 GMT

Imagine a world where hunting for the lost remote control or endlessly scrolling through a scheduling guide becomes a thing of the past.

Instead, what if the entertainment you wanted to have was simple, discoverable and exactly what you wanted at that particular moment? With the release of the new Xbox 360 experience the future of entertainment search is here. With Bing on Xbox you can sort through all of your entertainment content – including movies, games, TV shows, apps and music – with just the sound of your voice. Beginning December 6th and in the coming months, voice search with Bing on Xbox will start to roll out, enabling you to easily find the entertainment you’re looking for, across: Netflix, Hulu Plus, Comcast Xfinity on Demand, HBO Go, Zune and more across Xbox LIVE.

Bing on Xbox opens up living room entertainment the same way search engines opened up the web. When you think about the state of entertainment, there isn’t a lack of selection, the challenge is finding what you want in a timely manner. Now when you say “Xbox, Bing, Star Trek,” Bing will show you all the available options for the movies, music, games, on-demand TV and apps that match that title.

Watch as WMV

Our goal with features like Bing on Xbox is to make Bing available in convenient and intuitive ways that take advantage of the capabilities of your device. You can see this today with features like: voice search on Bing for Mobile, implicit search such as Local Scout on Windows Phone, the ability to search using your phone’s camera with Bing Vision, and touch/contextual search through the Lasso feature on the Bing for iPad. With Bing on Xbox, we are introducing a more natural way to search on the TV. And as a result, you can spend more time enjoying your entertainment, and far less time hunting for it.

Bing on Xbox voice search will initially be available in English in the U.S., Canada and the U.K. for select Zune video, Xbox LIVE Marketplace and select content partners. For those who do not have a Kinect for Xbox 360, text search, via the Xbox 360 controller, is available in Xbox LIVE markets.

For more specifics on the Xbox 360 announcement, including updates to the Xbox 360 dashboard, please check out the press release here.

You say it, Bing on Xbox finds it.

- Mike Nichols, General Manger, Bing

The Top 2011 Searches from Bing: A Year of Breakthroughs and Heartbreaks

The Bing Team — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 14:00:00 GMT

According to Bing searches, 2011 was the year of musical superstars, continued celebrity fascination, saving money, concern for human tragedy and new royalty. From rising stars and weddings to intense trials and natural disasters, Bing has captured history through the searches that mark the year’s most important people, places and moments in time.

Based on the aggregation of billions of search queries, the following post highlights the "most searched" of 2011:

People
News Stories
Sports Stars
Musicians
Consumer Electronics
TV Shows
Movies
Celebrity Events
Destinations
Other Interesting Searches

Most Searched Person of The Year:

Bieber fever turned out to be contagious this year, making Justin Bieber the most searched person on Bing in 2011.

Top Ten Most Searched Person In 2011 vs 2010:

Rank	2011	2010
1	Justin Bieber	Kim Kardashian
2	Kim Kardashian	Sandra Bullock
3	Jennifer Aniston	Lady Gaga
4	Lindsay Lohan	Tiger Woods
5	Jennifer Lopez	Barack Obama
6	Britney Spears	Justin Bieber
7	Katy Perry	Kate Gosselin
8	Megan Fox	Jesse James
9	Lady Gaga	Jennifer Aniston
10	Miley Cyrus	Michael Jackson

Most Notable Changes in Bing’s Most Searched Celebrity in 2011 versus 2010:

Bieber fever just got hotter: Justin Bieber moved from #6 in 2010 to #1 in 2011.
The fascination in Kim Kardashian remains strong in 2011, with her moving slightly from #1 in 2010 to #2 in 2011.
Six out of the top ten most searched people on Bing in 2010 fell out of the top ten in 2011, including Sandra Bullock, Jesse James, Michael Jackson, Tiger Woods, Barack Obama and Kate Gosselin.
New to the top ten most searched people on Bing in 2011 include Katy Perry, Jennifer Lopez, Lindsay Lohan, Britney Spears, Megan Fox, and Miley Cyrus.
Unfortunate news for Barack Obama heading into an election year, the President fell from #5 in 2010 to #49 in 2011.
Team Aniston is on an upswing, with Jennifer Aniston moving from #9 in 2010 to #3 in 2011, while Angelina Jolie fell from #17 in 2010 to #26 in 2011.
Dating the Biebs has its benefits…Selena Gomez went from #50 in 2010 to #11 in 2011.
Fueled by eight #1 hits for Teenage Dream, Katy Perry went from #26 in 2010 to #7 in 2011.
After not even cracking the top 50 in 2010, Jennifer Lopez rocketed to the 5^th most searched person in Bing this year.
American fell in love with the Middleton sisters in 2011, with Kate coming in at #12 and Pippa at #21.

Most Searched News Stories:

The high profile trials of Casey Anthony (#1) and Conrad Murray (#7) were followed closely by Americans this year.
Of the natural disasters in the top ten list, Hurricane Irene (#1) captured the most attention, followed by Japan’s earthquake and tsunami (#4) and the Joplin tornado (#6).
Remembrances were top-of-mind this year, including the 9/11 Ten Year Anniversary and the one-year anniversary of the Haiti earthquake.

1	Casey Anthony Trial
2	Osama Bin Laden Death
3	Hurricane Irene
4	Japan Earthquake/Tsunami
5	Amy Winehouse Death
6	Joplin Tornado
7	Michael Jackson trial/Conrad Murray
8	9/11 10 Year Anniversary
9	Republican Candidates - Herman Cain, Rick Perry
10	Haiti anniversary

Most Searched Sports Stars:

Girl power! The boys got served by Maria Sharapova in sports-related queries, beating Tiger Woods by 4 percent and Brett Favre by 117 percent.
Women’s Tennis also dominated the field with Maria Sharapova, Serena Williams and Caroline Wozniacki all finishing among the top 5 most searched sports stars.
When it comes to major sports, Derek Jeter ruled the diamond, Kobe Bryant outdueled King James (Lebron) on the hardwood and a retired Brett Favre won top honors on the gridiron.

Top 5 Most searched sports stars were:

1	Maria Sharapova
2	Tiger Woods
3	Serena Williams
4	Brett Favre
5	Caroline Wozniacki
6	Kobe Bryant
7	Lebron James
8	Lamar Odom
9	Hope Solo
10	Carmelo Anthony

Most Searched Musician:

While Justin Bieber was the most searched musician on Bing in 2011, Jennifer Lopez and Britney Spears are showing that old school beats new school, bringing in more searches than Nicki Minaj, Rihanna, Taylor Swift and Lady Gaga.

The Top 10 most searched musicians were:

1	Justin Bieber
2	Katy Perry
3	Jennifer Lopez
4	Britney Spears
5	Lady Gaga
6	Selena Gomez
7	Nicki Minaj
8	Rihanna
9	Beyonce
10	Taylor Swift

Most Searched Consumer Electronics:

Gadgets also captured interest this year. Xbox was the most searched consumer electronics product of the year on Bing, beating out Playstation and Wii as the favorite games console of the year.
Interestingly enough, one of the most searched consumer electronics of the year doesn't even exist yet! Speculations about the iPhone 5 came in as the fourth most searched consumer electronic device.

The Top Ten Most Searched Consumer Electronics are:

1	Xbox
2	Kindle
3	Playstation
4	iPhone 5
5	iPad
6	Wii
7	iPad 2
8	Nook
9	Windows Phone 7
10	Macbook Pro

Most Searched TV Shows:

Not only is American Idol the most searched TV show, but it ranks as the most searched reality show in 2011 as well. Heading into its 11^th season, American Idol had a strong hold on searches in 2011, beating second place winner, Dancing with the Stars(DWTS) by 43 percent.

The Top Ten Most Searched TV Shows in 2011 were:

1	American Idol
2	Dancing with the Stars
3	Glee
4	Jersey Shore
5	Family Guy
6	Chelsea Handler
7	The Young and the Restless
8	True Blood
9	Audrina
10	Big Brother

Most Searched Reality TV Shows

American Idol of course takes top honors as it is the most searched TV show overall for 2011 followed by DWTS, which also finished second overall.
Moving abroad and filming in Italy kept Jersey Shore on its strong run as the show finished third overall.

Top Ten Most Searched Reality TV Shows in 2011 were:

1	American Idol
2	Dancing with the Stars
3	Jersey Shore
4	Audrina
5	Big Brother
6	The Bachelorette
7	The Bachelor
8	The Biggest Loser
9	Survivor
10	Deadliest Catch

Most Searched Reality Stars:

The Top Ten Most Searched Reality Stars in 2011 were:

1	Kim Kardashian
2	Kate Gosselin
3	Khloe Kardashian
4	Heidi Montag
5	Kourtney Kardashian
6	Kendra Wilkinson
7	Snooki (Nicole Polizzi)
8	Kristin Cavallari
9	Audrina Patridge
10	Tori Spelling

The Kardashians can’t be stopped – Kim, Khloe and Kourtney all placed in the top 5 list for the most searched reality stars of the year on Bing!
The Hills continues to be a reality star making machine, as three cast members made the top 10: Heidi Montag at #4, Kristin Cavallari at #8 and Audrina Patridge at #9. Lauren Conrad came in at #14.
The reality star ladies rule, with 24 out of the top 25 most searched reality stars being female. The most searched male reality star was Ryan Seacrest.
Bethanny Frankel is the queen of Bravo, representing the most searched Bravo reality star of the year and the most searched present or past member of the Housewives franchise.
Camille Grammer, followed by Sonja Morgan and Jill Zarin, was the most searched member of the current Housewives cast.
Snookie was by far the most searched cast member of the Jersey Shore receiving twice as many searches as the runner-up, J-Woww and six times as many as Pauly-D.
Jennifer Lopez was far and away the most searched American Idol personality with over 13 times more searches than Ryan and Randy combined.

Most Searched Late Night TV Shows:

When it comes to late night television, Chelsea Handler is too hot to handle-, beating out all the male hosts. . Specifically, she beat second place winner David Letterman by 318 percent and third place winner Conan by over 369 percent.

In addition, David Letterman was the most searched network late night star and Team Coco beat out Jay Leno in Bing searches.

The Top Nine Most Searched Late Night Shows in 2011 were:

1	Chelsea Handler
2	David Letterman
3	Conan O’Brien
4	Jon Stewart
5	Jay Leno
6	Jimmy Fallon
7	Jimmy Kimmel
8	Stephen Colbert
9	Craig Ferguson

Most Searched Daytime Talk Shows

Aided by her role on the popular Dancing with the Stars, Wendy Williams came in as the most searched daytime talk show, beating out heavyweight Ellen DeGeneres.
The newbies were piquing people’s interest, with Anderson Cooper coming in at #3 and Rosie O’Donnell coming in at #5.

The Top Ten Most Searched Daytime Talk Shows in 2011 were:

1	Wendy Williams
2	Ellen Degeneres
3	Anderson Cooper
4	Rachael Ray
5	Rosie O’Donnell
6	Regis and Kelly
7	The View
8	Nate Berkus
9	The Talk
10	Gayle King

Most Searched Morning Shows

·The Today Show continues to reign supreme in the morning show circuit, garnering twice as many searches as Good Morning America.

The Top Searched Morning Shows in 2011 were:

1	Today Show
2	Good Morning America
3	The Early Show
4	Fox & Friends
5	Morning Joe
6	CNN American Morning

Most Searched Movies:

Tom Cruise and the Mission Impossible franchise are poised to make a comeback as the upcoming Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol edged Twilight: Breaking Dawn for the most searched movie in 2011.
Sequels reigned supreme this year, as the top 5 searched movies were all follow-ups to original stories.

The Top Ten most searched movies were:

1	Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol
2	Twilight: Breaking Dawn
3	The Hangover 2
4	Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
5	Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows: Part 2
6	The Help
7	The Smurfs
8	X Men: First Class
9	Just Go With It
10	The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Most Searched Celebrity Event:

When people say a wedding is all about the bride, the rule extends to royal weddings as well! While the royal wedding was by far the most searched celebrity event of 2011, Prince William didn’t even make the top 100 list, while his beaming bride, Kate Middleton, came in as the number 12 most searched person. And the female focus extended through the Middleton family, as Kate’s sister and maid of honor, Pippa, ranked at number 21.

Real royalty outranked Hollywood royalty with searches for the royal wedding outpacing searches for Kim Kardashian’s wedding four to one.

Top Ten Most Searched Celebrity Events in 2011 were:

1	Royal Wedding
2	Final Harry Potter
3	Kim Kardashian Wedding
4	Beyonce’s Baby Bump
5	Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson Dating
6	Demi Moore/Ashton Kutcher Scandal
7	Kate Hudson Baby Bump
8	Lady Gaga Coming Out in the Egg
9	Lindsey Lohan Arrested
10	Russell Armstrong Suicide

Most Searched Destinations:

It looks like a lot of people relate to the ‘what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas’ catchphrase, as Las Vegas won the top spot as the most searched destination in the world in 2011.

The top searched destination in other regions of the world include:

Asia = Singapore
Africa = Alexandria, South Africa
Australia/New Zealand = Sydney, Australia
Caribbean = Cancun, Mexico
Europe = Paris, France
Middle East = Dubai, UAE
South America = Lima, Peru

Other Interesting Search Data For the Year:

Most Searched Viral Video: 2011 was all about Friday -- Rebecca Black’s Friday that is. As the most searched viral video on Bing, Rebecca Black’s video even beat MTV video music award winner Adele by 34 percent.
Most Searched Celebrity Couple: When it comes to the most searched celebrity couple on Bing, there’s a tie between Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith and Selena Gomez and Justin Bieber tied. The royal couplecame in third.
Most Searched Economic Terms: With the economic difficulties we’re facing, it’s no wonder that bankruptcy and selling a home were among the top financial terms searched in 2011. Topping the list were searches for real estate agents, perhaps showing the difficulty and need in selling a home.
Most Searched Charities: Despite the economic issues plaguing the country, charitable giving was still on the mind of many Americans. The YMCA took home honors as the most searched charitible organization, with the American Red Cross, Lance Armstrong Foundation, SPCA and Habitat for Humanity rounding out the top 5.
Most Searched Celebrity Children: When it comes to celebrity children, Suri Cruise is by far the most popular kid on the block. The runner ups, Malia and Sasha Obama were far behind with only a third of the searches conducted for Suri Cruise.
Most Searched Diet Plan: Diets are always a popular topic and Weight Watchers took the crown for 2011 beating out Calorie Counting, Atkins, HCG and the Cholesterol Diet.

For more background, check out the article on Microsoft News Center.

- Kari Dilloo, Lisa Gurry and Lise Brende, Bing

Bing Australia Bounces Out of Beta

Bing Australia — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 00:16:00 GMT

Today, following more than two years of localisation and product development since its Australian launch, the Beta tag has been removed from Bing Australia.

Bing positions itself as a new-generation search engine that helps you get things done, quickly and easily, making searching the web more instinctive.

Key features of Bing are:

Bing is task oriented - designed to help you get things done more quickly, with less queries
Bing is visually organised - displays search results with more than just blue links

Nearly 3 million Australians use Bing search engine each month and local Bing users are increasing. Traffic increased by more than 65% between June 2009 and Sept 2011.

The removal of the Beta tag is today marked with an Australian home page image featuring two Urambi roos.

Did you know that kangaroos can't move backwards? Much like Bing Australia you could say. We've come this far so it's now full-steam ahead. Thanks to each and every one of you for your ongoing support and we look forward to sharing with you what lies ahead for the future of Search.

- Bing AU Product team

Bing Webmaster Tools Fall Updates

The Bing Team — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 17:14:00 GMT

We’ve spent the better part of a year now hitting the shows, running surveys and holding focus groups. Along with the information we captured direct from the webmaster community through those sources, there is the daily flow of inbound suggestions and, yes, items needing to be fixed, that we can draw insights from. Now, just in time for the holidays, we’re rolling out the latest features and updates, most of which come directly from user feedback. You spoke, we listened, worked and are now delivering.

Continuing our commitment to help publishers do more on Bing, today we’re announcing our biggest updates since Honey Badger, by focusing on three areas: To share more data, to increase transparency and to bring you more useful tools.

To start with, we’re expanding Crawl Details information. This means we will be showing you all inbound links to a given URL regardless of the heading. So anything listed under the 300, 400 & 500 codes will, by URL, display inbound links to the URL. As well, any URLs listed under the Robots.txt and Malware headings will also share data the same way. You are now no longer limited to just seeing inbound links which point only to pages returning a 400 header response code.

Active email alerts will be expanding. If we place an alert in your account for Malware, you’ll get an email. If we would liketo access more of your content, more deeply, we may send you an email asking you to review your crawl settings. If you’ve got them turned down, slowing us down, this is a chance to increase the crawl rate and for us to get more of your content, faster. The setting will remain under your control, but we’ll email the suggestions.

We’re going to be placing URL Normalization suggestions inside your Webmaster account now, too. They will all be disabled by default, allowing you to choose which, if any, elements you want to incorporate into the controls. We realize that with this increase in information, some sites may hit limits and be forced to choose which elements to include for normalization while leaving others out, so we’re also increasing the number of query string parameters that can be normalized per site from 25 items to 50 items. This doubling means you can place many more items in the system for normalization. As always, though, we encourage websites to find ways to fix any canonicalization issues at the source.

Our Index Explorer tool is now being populated with deeper data about your website. As we continue to expand our depth and share, we will continue to update data for domains. Your most visual clue to this change will be in the Traffic Data appearing within the Index Explorer tool.

With this round of updates, we’re also enabling DNS verification for domains in your account. Past choices included adding a snippet to your <head> code or uploading a dedicated XML file to the root of your site, and both options remain as valid ways to verify your domains. This third option will now allow you to place a discrete CNAME record to your DNS to validate a domain as well.

For the final enhancement, we’re integrating data from adCenter inside your webmaster tools accounts. Specifically, when viewing Traffic data and looking at the keywords which drove traffic to your site, you’ll notice an Avg CPC column on the left now, with more details in a floating pane to the left of that.

The normal traffic data remains as usual to the right, across the page, and you can sort as before. This new feature allows you to quickly see keywords, and associated CPCs, helping you plan your marketing efforts more effectively. Clicking on “Buy this keyword” takes you towards your adCenter account, where you can login and complete the process.

These features are available now in your Bing Webmaster tools.

- Duane Forrester

Windows Phone 7.5: Bing(o) on Mango

The Bing Team — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 15:00:00 GMT

As the Windows Phone 7.5 update, code name “Mango,” rolls out to customers, we are excited to get our hands on what is an elegant, intuitive experience that places the user at the center of the experience. Not surprisingly, what excites us the most is what the team has done with Bing on the new Windows Phone experience. With that in mind, we wanted to highlight some of our favorite features:

Beyond the Search Box

Bing on Windows Phone now transcends the search box. No longer limited by text, you can now search with voice, audio and vision.

Voice: Search without typing using the voice search functionality.
Music Search: Find what song is playing by letting you phone "listen" to the music. It not only shows you the name, artist, and album, but even shows you where you can hear or buy it.
Bing Vision: You can now use your phone’s camera to look up product information by bringing an object into view. Bing will recognize text and present the option to select words for a search, and instantly return product results if the object has a barcode. Bing Vision can also detect product information from UPC codes, QR Codes and MS Tag as well as cover art for books, CD’s, DVD’s and video games.

Bing Local Scout Goes Hyper Local

Bing Local Scout provides local search results and recommends nearby restaurants, shopping and other activities in an easy to use guide powered by Bing. Whether you’re looking for the best brunch or live music in your area, it's all a tap away. Simply pick a result and you’ll see everything you need to know —where it's located, how to get there, who to call, when it's open, the website, and even ratings and reviews.

The results are arranged by:

Highlights: Top rated and highly reviewed listings
Eat+Drink: Nearby restaurants
See+Do: Nearby attractions and activities
Shop: Nearby stores

App Connect

Ever wonder which app does what – Bing has you covered. Bing search results now return Windows Phone Marketplace apps that are relevant to what you’re searching for. So the next time you search for movie times, Bing will show you the best movie apps.

For an in depth look at how this works, check out Ben and Stefan’s video covering Bing on Windows Phone 7.5:

- Ted Roduner, Bing

Deciding on a Movie? Real Steel Packs a Punch

The Bing Team — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 16:00:00 GMT

Today Real Steel hits theaters, a classic story pitting the innovative challenger with heart, against an entrenched incumbent. A movie we can get behind.

Starring Hugh Jackman, Real Steel follows a boxer who is forced to retire as people are replaced in the ring by robots. When he has difficulty making a living, he reluctantly teams up with his son Max to build a robot that can fight his way to the championship.

In anticipation of the release, we sat down with Sean Levy the director of the film, to explore the critical decisions behind the film.

Now check out how you can use Bing to plan your night out to Real Steel:

- The Bing Team

Something New on the Homepage!

The Bing Team — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 07:01:00 GMT

Here at the Bing homepage team, we’re always looking for ways to bring you a little something special. Today we’re really excited to announce the first ever video homepage.

If you have an HTML-5 enabled browser, you now get all the beauty and intrigue of the Bing homepage with a little breath of life added. Users without a modern browser will continue to see the gorgeous still photography that we’re known for. Not getting the video and want to see what the fuss is about? Try downloading IE9 and going to www.bing.com.

We won’t be programming a video every day, just when the mood strikes us.

While this first video is US-only, we’ll begin rolling the video homepage out to international markets in the next few months – so stay tuned.

If you’re interested in learning more about the evolution of the homepage and how the team chooses content, check out the following video.

Happy first day of fall!

Stephanie Horstmanshof

Bing Homepage team

Deluged by Daily Deals? Browse Over 200k Offers with Bing Deals

The Bing Team — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 13:00:00 GMT

Despite lots of recent news coverage about the death of daily deal sites, people still love a great deal. The number of daily deal sites may be narrowing, but there are still over 300 sites to choose from and consumer interest shows no signs of slowing down. Comscore data reveals the deals audience grew by 24 percent in the past year, and according to a recent Bing/Impulse survey, 61% of people have increased their use of daily deals in the last six months.

However, people are overloaded with deals that aren’t relevant to them and nearly a quarter of the people surveyed said they are “fatigued” by the overabundance of deals. For some, the pain in finding an attractive deal is outweighing the reward.

But, people are telling us if they can end the unwelcome egg hunt, they would welcome the savings. When asked, 87% of people said they would increase their use of daily deals if they could find only deals that interest them all in one place.

Today, with the launch of Bing Deals, we’re doing just that.

Instead of building another program, we’re harnessing deals from major providers and retailers to help you cut through the clutter and find the best deals in one central location. Now you have a place to browse, find and purchase. Because we’ve done the work, all you have to do is go to bing.com/deals.

And this is just the beginning. More money-saving features will roll out over the coming weeks.

Key Features:

One-Stop Shop: The new Bing Deals experience aggregates more than 200,000 deals across the US, including local deals, helping you easily match multiple deals to ensure you’re getting the best one. There is no need to browse hundreds of websites or sign-up for multiple emails. You can find the best deals on the web at Bing.com/deals.
Browse for the Best Deals: Bing Deals cuts through the clutter by cleansing and organizing deals, so irrelevant deals are filtered out of your experience. You can browse by retailer, location, keywords or by category such as restaurants, spa services, arts & entertainment, and even nightlife to find exactly what you want quickly. If you’re not sure what you’re looking for, simply browse the top deals of the day to see if something sparks your interest!
Visual Search Results: Because shopping is a visual experience and so is searching on Bing, your deal search results are visually organized on the screen to help you easily sort through your options and find the best deal based on what you’re looking for.
Daily Deals: With one click, you’ll see the top daily deals featuring the very best offers in your metro area, with savings generally from 30%-50% off.
More Deals on the Go. If you’ve been enjoying Bing Mobile Deals at m.bing.com, you’ll benefit from the same deals available on the PC.

Simply put – Bing is the one-stop shop for the best deals, discounts and coupons and this is just the beginning. You’ll see more deals and more features rolling out soon so stay tuned. For now, check out the following video to see it in action and visit www.bing.com/deals to experience it yourself.

- Lisa Gurry, Bing

CW’s Fall Line Up: TV to Bing About

The Bing Team — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 15:00:00 GMT

Everyone at Bing is excited for the upcoming fall TV season and we’re especially excited about our partnership with the CW - “TV to Bing About”. We’re teaming up with the CW to provide a behind the scenes look this fall’s hottest shows including 90210, Gossip Girl, The Vampire Diaries Supernatural, and Top Model, as well as the much buzzed about new series, Secret Circle, H8R, Hart of Dixie and Ringer with Sarah Michele Geller. A partnership like this is unprecedented for Bing and CW, and extends across multiple screens –including TV, online and mobile - combining the intrigue and popularity of the hottest CW shows with the power of decisions from Bing.

Over 50 pieces of original content will be delivered to CW fans – highlighting the top decisions facing their favorite characters and shows this season. For each CW premiere, new videos will debut within the show and online.

You can see our first videos for 90210 and The Secret Circle below.

To kick things off, the CW and Bing hosted a gala party in LA celebrating the premiere of the fall network line-up.

You can preview the upcoming series, see the first videos including Bing, and check out highlights from the party at http://www.cwtv.com/bing.

- Lisa Gurry, Director, Bing

Affordable Fall Weekend Getaways

The Bing Team — Fri, 09 Sep 2011 18:53:14 GMT

By Andrew Hickey, www.thebrooklynnomad.com

As summer comes to a close, it’s time to think about planning the perfect fall vacation. Typically, the months between the lazy days of summer and the holiday season are less popular with travelers, which means cheap deals may be found at many top destinations across the country. So whether you’re a leaf peeper in search of some autumn foliage or a serious beach bum who would like a few more days of surf and sand, check out five of my favorite affordable fall weekend getaways.

Chicago: While summertime in the Windy City is extremely popular with tourists – causing hotel rates to rise with the temperature – and the winter climate is better suited to polar bears and penguins, fall is a beautiful and affordable time to visit. If possible, plan your getaway for the Columbus Day weekend, and check out the Chicago Marathon on Oct. 9 for a truly memorable experience.

Search more fall events in Chicago.

Las Vegas: Sin City is sizzling in the summer, so fall is the perfect time to book a cheap flight and hotel. The temperatures are comfortable, which means you can spend more time wandering the Strip and less time emptying your wallet at slot machines and poker tables. If you’re looking to spend the money you saved on travel, Vegas will provide you with plenty of options, including Blue Man Group, Zumanity and many more events.

Find flight deals to Las Vegas.

Portland, Ore.: The Rose City is often overlooked by its more popular Pacific Northwest neighbor, Seattle. However, Portland packs a punch for budget travelers visiting during the fall, with affordable hotel rates and inviting attractions. The city is both bike-friendly and walkable for people looking to explore outdoors. Be sure to visit one or all of the numerous Portland museums, stop by the Japanese Garden and pack on the pounds at Voodoo Doughnut, a foodie favorite.

Search more attractions in Portland.

Savannah, Ga.: Southern hospitality is awaiting you this fall if you make your travel plans to cozy Savannah. From the historic architecture to the outstanding comfort food, the Garden City offers plenty to do for all types of travelers. Check out the Savannah Jazz Festival (Sept. 18-25) and the Savannah Film Festival (Oct. 29-Nov. 5) for two autumn activities that bring even more excitement to this bustling Southern locale. Rooms are affordable, too, if you check in to one of the many romantic bed and breakfasts or historic inns.

Spend a weekend in Savannah next month.

Myrtle Beach, S.C.: If you need more time to lounge beachside, look no further than Myrtle Beach, which boasts more than 60 miles of white, sandy beaches. Lessening crowds and decreasing hotel rates mean a more enjoyable and affordable weekend getaway. Myrtle Beach offers some of the country’s top golf courses, fun amusement-park rides, historic attractions, exciting nightlife -- and did we mention plenty of sand and surf?

Find more attractions in Myrtle Beach.

Guest blogger Andrew Hickey is a New York-based travel writer and full-time social media manager for Gap Adventures. He also writes a popular blog called The Brooklyn Nomad, which covers travel news, deals, tips and more. Follow him @BrooklynNomad and check him out on Facebook, http://www.facebook.com/brooklynnomad.

Bing on Xbox and The Future of the Living Room

The Bing Team — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 15:30:00 GMT

In June, we talked about how the future living room will do more than give you great entertainment; it will help you find what you’re looking for and help you decide what to enjoy. To that end, we previewed a new way for people to find movies, games, music and other entertainment: voice search with Bing on Xbox.

Today on the Microsoft Blog, Frank Shaw expands on this notion highlighting how products and services like Xbox, Kinect and Bing are converging to bring you all the entertainment you want, with the people you care about.

To read more, check out Frank Shaw’s blog here.

- The Bing Team

Mall Maps and Map Search come to Bing for Mobile

The Bing Team — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 01:30:00 GMT

Today, we’re happy to announce that we have added mall maps and map search to Bing for Mobile Browse. You may recall that we initially announced mall maps for the desktop last December. Since then we’ve been listening to your feedback and have been hard at work growing our coverage. We’re excited to share that as of today, our collection of more than 400 shopping malls is available from m.bing.com making it easier to get where you’re going and find what you need on the go.

Venue maps are a great way to save time and frustration when planning your next summer vacation or that last minute shopping trip – getting you in and out the door faster. Additionally, we now also provide the capability to search on the map. Let’s take a closer look at the new features and how they work:

Finding venue maps
We’ve made locating mall maps an easy task from your desktop or m.bing.com. Just search for the mall name on Bing or Bing Maps, then click on the Mall Map link in the search results contact card. Here’s a closer look at the mall map experience from your desktop and mobile device:

Mall Maps from your mobile:

You can also view different levels of a specific venue by clicking the “Level” button at the top of the screen and then selecting the correct level from the provided list.

Close up on Search on the Map
With this update, we’re also adding the ability to search from Bing Maps. When searching from Bing Maps, the search results take advantage of Bings Maps/List split view providing a dynamic synchronization between a list and corresponding map in a single view. Pan the map and hit refresh and the results in the list will change based on the position of the map. The map highlights the business locations as you scroll through the list making it easy to see where all the options are located. Clicking on a list item such as a business listing will move the map to focus on that business. Similarly, clicking on a point of interest on the map updates the list.

Mall maps are available on Bing.com from your desktop and mobile devices that support HTML5 capable browsers including iPhone, Android and RIM devices. To access the maps from your mobile device go to m.bing.com or from your desktop go to Bing Maps (http://www.bing.com/maps/). Check them out today and let us know what you think!

Roberto Bojorquez Alfaro – Program Manager, Bing Maps
Philomena Lobo – Product Manager, Bing Maps

It’s Not Too Late to Book Great Summer Travel Deals: Summer Fareology Update from Bing

The Bing Team — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 13:00:00 GMT

With the economy still sputtering, summer vacations are on the chopping block for many people this year. In fact, a recent consumer survey from Bing Travel (conducted by Impulse Research) found some interesting items about consumers’ current attitudes and behaviors on vacations and travel.

66 percent of Americans are more likely to actually choose their vacation destination based on deals and discounts. 30 percent of survey respondents left paid vacation days on the table last year because they felt they did not have the money to go on vacation.
The quest for travel deals also takes up a lot of people’s valuable time, with 91 percent of survey respondents cited visiting multiple websites when researching and booking travel and 20 percent spending at least 10 hours researching trips before booking and 59 percent spending a minimum of 3 hours.
One-third of survey respondents say they’d rather get a root canal then spend hours doing the research and planning needed to book a vacation these days.

Don’t despair as relaxing (and affordable) getaways are still out there. We combed through billions of fares to unearth a wealth of deals and pricing trends that can help resuscitate your summer travel plans.

Great Airfare Deals Still Exist:

Overall airfare is down from last year by between 3.3% – 4% depending on length of stay. This reversing the trend of price increases that we initially saw for the beginning of summer.
While many warm weather destinations are up on average between 6.5% - 6.6%, Florida has the biggest drop in prices.

July and August are showing the biggest year-over-year decreases, with prices remaining steady to trending upward in September and October.

Hotels Are More Expensive, But Good Deals Can Be Found:

In general, hotels are trending more expensive across cities, with price increases between 1%-30%
- Biggest increases – Paris, Rome
- Biggest decreases – Toronto, Orlando
- Cheapest city – Orlando, Las Vegas
- Most expensive cities – New York, Paris

It’s not too late to have your summer vacation! Check out the great deals still available at Bing Travel and make the most of your summer!

- Kari Dilloo, Bing PR Team

Bing for iPad Update: Searching Without a Search Box

The Bing Team — Tue, 05 Jul 2011 16:00:00 GMT

<Visiting from an iPad? Click here for an optimized version of this blog post: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=223315 >

In April we released Bing for iPad and needless to say, we were humbled by the positive response we received. In the first three months, we had more than 5,000 ratings in the App Store and an average score of 4.7 stars (out of five stars). But what we really liked was all the great feedback on areas to improve and features to add.

We’re pleased to release an update to Bing for iPad, rolling out later today in the app store. In this release we made some improvements that you asked for and are excited to introduce a new feature called Lasso. Designed for touch-friendly devices, Lasso is a new way to search with the touch of a finger.

From our research, we know that many searches are inspired by things people see on the web. Today, it can be somewhat painful to search on a tablet when you’re engaged in reading something; just copying and pasting pieces of text from a webpage to a search box can take up to nine steps on the iPad. With Lasso you can circle and search in just two steps.

This release also includes: an improved movie experience that now lets you view multiple showtime days and theaters, the ability to swipe through the last six Bing homepage images, and hundreds of quality and performance improvements based on what we heard from you.

If you’re already using Bing for iPad, you should see an update for it in the App Store. Otherwise, you can download it here later today.

What you’re seeing today is only the beginning. Lasso moves Bing beyond the search box. Although it will only be available in Bing for iPad to begin with, we’re already thinking about how to take Lasso even further – so stay tuned.

As always, we’d love to hear what you think, so keep the feedback coming!

Tony Chor

Group Program Manager, Bing

Photosynth App Update and Best of Bing Maps Summer Xbox & Kinect Contest

The Bing Team — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 16:00:00 GMT

Capture the sights of summer and share them with friends using the updated Photosynth app, available in iTunes today (http://www.itunes.com/apps/photosynth )! We listened to the 3,500,000 people who downloaded the first version of the app and added some of the most requested features: email, simplified sharing, and exploration of great panoramas by other users. To celebrate the launch of these new features, we’re even awarding Xbox360 with Kinect prize packages for the very best panoramas shared with Bing Maps!

The Photosynth app captures full 360° panoramas with a fun, interactive experience and makes it simple to share with friends and family. Today’s update adds email sharing and image cropping capabilities when you save a panorama to the Camera Roll, which means you can more easily bring your panoramas into other apps. We’ve also made sharing to Facebook and Bing Maps easier than before, allowing you to share to both at the same time.

The new "Best of Bing Maps" feature lets you explore great panoramas created by others and shared on Bing Maps directly within the app. View stunning full-sphere panoramas from people around the world and get inspired by the creative possibilities of Photosynth.

We're excited about “Best of Bing Maps,” and we want you to get excited too! Which is why this summer, we're giving away an Xbox 360 with Kinect prize package every week to the best panoramas shared to Bing Maps.* In the app, go to the library and click "Best of Bing Maps" to learn more and enter the contest. We can't wait to see the amazing and creative panoramas you share!

With the Photosynth App, you can:

See your panoramas take shape with each picture you take.
Get sharp, seamless, and high-resolution results looking in all directions.
See most panoramas within seconds of taking your last picture.
Explore the world’s best panoramas on Bing Maps through the “Best of Bing Maps.”
Zoom, pan, stretch, and view your panorama in landscape or portrait mode.
Save and view your panoramas on your device and view them online at Photosynth.net.
Share your panoramas to Bing Maps and see them throughout Bing.
Share your images or interactive panoramas with friends on Facebook
Send email panoramas directly from the app or save them to the Camera Roll.

The new and improved Photosynth app is available on a variety of iOS devices (iPhone 4, iPhone 3Gs, iPod Touch fourth generation, and iPad 2) and will be coming next to a Windows Phone near you. You can download the app for free from the iTunes App Store today.

- Eric Bennett, Senior Program Manager, Bing’s Photosynth Team

*NO PURCHASE NECESSARY. Open to ages 14 and older who did not purchase any equipment for purposes of entering the Contest. Enter Contest by: 10/10/11. To enter and for Official Rules, including prize description, visit www.photosynth.net. Void where prohibited.

Bing for Mobile Browse Gets More Social

The Bing Team — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 20:30:00 GMT

Today we unveiled an update to Bing for Mobile Browse (m.bing.com), which includes a number of new features to help you make faster, more informed decisions while on the go. Today’s updates make it easier to share on Facebook, access news, see local listings and directions in one view, reference past searches and view trending topics.

Let’s take a closer look at some of the new features:

Share on Facebook – Easily share images, local business details, and, applications (only on iOS devices) with your Facebook friends, making it easy for them to learn, comment and “Like” what you find interesting and you to get their opinion while on the go.

News - Whether you’re looking for the latest entertainment news or sports scores, get the day’s news straight from your Bing for Mobile browse home page with the touch of a button. For headline news, we added a carousel that lets you to quickly flip through the headlines so you’ll never miss a beat or scroll down to see the top three headlines and images for numerous categories. The categories are the same you have come to expect from Bing News on your PC, including U.S, World, Local (state), Entertainment, Science/Technology, Business Politics, Sports, and Health. This feature is currently in the US only.

Maps/List Split View – Tired of switching between the map and list view for directions? Or want to discover what business listings are relative to each other while you find that perfect place to go tonight? Now you can get both the map and the list -- business listings and directions-- in a single view, making it easier to see locations of what you’re searching for. While you interact with the list, the map will always show the business or direction point you are interested in on the map.

Maps/List Split View also works for transit and walking directions.

Search History /Trending Topics – Do you always search for a specific restaurant or location? With search history, you can easily reference past searches with the touch of a button. Additionally, Trending Topics highlights the most popular searches based on what’s currently hot on Bing. This feature is available in the US only.

Today’s updates are available on devices that support HTML5 capable browsers including iPhone, Android and RIM devices. In addition, non-touch RIM devices supporting RIM OS 6.0 and higher can now enjoy an enhanced rich browse experience. The screen includes cursor based navigation and all touch gestures have a corresponding non-touch gesture.

Today also marks our expansion across the pond with the launch of Bing for Mobile browse in the UK. In addition to the above updates, customers in the UK will see: a redesigned homepage, enhanced local listings, autosuggest, image search, and driving and walking directions (and real-time transit in London).

Check out http://m.bing.com today and let us know what you think!

Andy Chu, Director, Bing for Mobile

Updates to Bing Webmaster Tools, data and content.

Duane Forrester — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 16:00:00 GMT

Bing has been investing in building its Webmaster Tools for a while now, and today we’re announcing some of the most recent updates. We spent a lot of time earlier this year meeting with people at search conferences to understand what new features they wanted to see from us, and what current features we could support further. We also gathered feedback on what helpful content should exist within our webmaster space. Through the Honey Badger update, as we’re calling it, you’ll see noticeable investments in both areas as we launch a revised webmaster experience here at Bing. In fact, you can count on more monthly content being added in the near future as we work through a list of topics we’ll be covering. Below you will see some of the investments on the feature side and on the content side.

Here is a walk-through of some of the major features and improvements Bing Webmaster account users will see:

Crawl delay configurable by the hour
- Users can ask us to crawl slower during peak business hours and have us crawl faster during off-peak hours
- Simple drag-and-drop functionality allows you to create a crawl graph by clicking and dragging your mouse pointer across the graph. You can easily fine tune by clicking individual columns, too.
- Feature enables dedicated pre-set crawl settings for AJAX websites

Index Explorer

This is a complete rewrite of the Index Tracker backend focusing on the following tenants:

Freshness
Performance
Extensibility
Reduced machine footprint
Stability and failure detection
New sites will have Index Explorer data the moment they sign up

User and role management
- Site owners can now grant admin, read / write, or read-only access to other users for their site using their existing verification code
- They can also grant users access to parts of their sites (subdomains or folders)

Beyond the updated and enhanced features, Bing Webmaster Tools is also launching detailed self-help guides and how-to documents. We’re covering a wide range of topics in this initial release, from how to accomplish tasks within Bing Webmaster tools, to what you should be focused on when performing search engine optimization. Here’s a quick peek at some of the list of new content topics we’re covering:

Using Bing Webmaster Tools
Webmaster Tools Data explained
How to perform Link Building
Removing or blocking pages from our index
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) guidance
Managing URL parameters
Implementing Rich Snippets (www.schema.org)
Managing Canonicalization (duplicate content)
Using the <rel="nofollow"> tag
Managing redirects
404 page management
Rich Media and Search

This is a snapshot of the over 40 new guides and how-to documents we’re launching. Watch for new content to appear monthly as we invest further in explaining features and highlight areas of work webmasters are focused on.

Visit Bing Webmaster Tools to see the new features in your account, and to access the new content.

- Duane Forrester, Bing

Bing on Xbox: You are The Controller

The Bing Team — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 19:00:00 GMT

The future living room does more than give you great entertainment; it helps you find what you’re looking for and helps you decide what to enjoy. It gives you simplicity, discovery and personal choice. Today at E3, we are excited to preview a new way for people to find movies, games, music and other entertainment: voice search with Bing on Xbox.

Today’s announcement opens up your living room entertainment in the same way search engines opened up the Web by indexing it and making it discoverable. When you think about the state of your entertainment media, the challenge of finding what you want is similar. You have games, movies, music, TV shows and other content on your console, through services like Netflix, Hulu, and Zune, and programming and on-demand options available through cable and satellite providers. Xbox alone is growing from hundreds of thousands of pieces of content to millions. By combining all this content with the power of Bing’s deep search expertise, Microsoft Tellme’s voice technology and the magic of Kinect, we’ll be able to provide instant access to the expansive catalogue of entertainment options on Xbox Live. You say it, Xbox finds it, and you can enjoy it faster. Voice search works across media types and across apps so you can focus on deciding what to enjoy rather than where and how to find it.

Just saying: “Xbox Bing Lego” or “Xbox Bing X-Men” will give you all the available options for the movie, music, game and other matches around those titles.

You can select, browse or refine your search using voice and hand gestures so that you find what you want in a fraction of the time it currently takes.

Because you may have several viewing options, in this case, Xbox will prioritize your choices based on what you own or the services to which you are a subscriber, such as Netflix. Bing on Xbox will help you decide by giving you other options to consider such as High Definition and purchase price. This holiday season, voice search with Bing on Xbox will be available in the United States, Canada and United Kingdom, and within the next year, both voice control and voice search will be available in Australia, Canada (French), France, Germany, the Republic of Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand and Spain.

&amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;Bing on Xbox gives you ultimate control. Bing on Xbox means you spend more time enjoying your entertainment, and far less time hunting for it. Bing on Xbox combines your voice and all your entertainment to make TV more amazing -- you are the controller.&amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt; &amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;gt;Yusuf Mehdi &amp;amp;lt;br /&amp;amp;gt;Senior Vice President, Bing&amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;gt;

Bing on Xbox gives you ultimate control. Bing on Xbox means you spend more time enjoying your entertainment, and far less time hunting for it. Bing on Xbox combines your voice and all your entertainment to make TV more amazing – you are the controller.

Yusuf Mehdi

Senior Vice President, Bing