Mobile Madness Round 2… Then and Now

The availability of Windows phones earlier this month was a great kick off to mobile madness and a good excuse to give some sneak peeks of our new Bing™ for mobile app. We have been hard at work trying to bring Bing to all sorts of mobile devices, to provide customers with an amazing search experience wherever they are. As we are feeling nostalgic for some reason today, we thought a little trip down memory lane was in order.

It all began in 2007 (well 2005 if you want to go back to betas but for the sake of time, let’s start in 2007). It was the year of No Country for Old Men and the Indianapolis Colts winning the Super Bowl. It was also the year we shipped a new, integrated mobile search experience on the Windows Mobile platform, and began adding some cool features to the Windows Mobile search experience including real-time traffic, maps and directions, movie times, gas prices and even voice search (which we think is wicked cool). We also shipped a version for BlackBerry devices equipped with location awareness functionality to enhance searches.

We know, you are wondering “what have you done for me lately?” Well, last week we unveiled the new and improved Bing for mobile browser, give it a try at m.bing.com from your web-enabled device. Today, we’re happy to share that the Bing for mobile application is available on the brand new Verizon BlackBerry Storm 2, and is now rolling out to Verizon BlackBerry Storm 1 users. Simply go to the Bing icon on your device to use the app. Here’s a look at what you’ll see.

Bing for mobile was designed to help mobile users make decisions and get where you need to be quickly and easily when you are on the go and the new app takes that to the next level. A few updates you’ll notice:

• Map Your Way with quick access to maps, driving directions and traffic information. And with an improved auto-locate feature, you can find where you are and where you are going.
• Quick Answers with a customizable mobile homepage you can save your favorite searches making it easier to get the information you want quickly.
• Act Locally and quickly find information on local businesses including nearby restaurants or a local movie theatre with the latest showtimes.
• Type Less, Search More with the voice search feature. Speak your search query into your phone and Bing does the rest.

Give it a try and let us know what you think.

Justin Jed, Bing for mobile

Other post of interest:

Bing for mobile now live at m.bing.com