Bing — A Decision Engine for the Way You Search
Whether you need to find the free throw average of an NBA All-Star or the name of a good
after-hours plumber, the answer traditionally has been as close as your nearest Internet search
engine. Microsoft Corp.’s own studies have found that the act of searching is nearly as habitual
as brushing your teeth or tapping your leg in a boring meeting.
However, in just over a decade’s time the number of Web sites has increased exponentially.
The availability of such a vast amount of information has drawn more people online to make
decisions, whether day-to-day tasks or major business and household purchases. But it’s also led
to search engines that can provide too much information, and page after page of irrelevant or
extraneous search results. In other words, even though the type, scope and amount of content
on the Web has changed radically in the last decade, the tools we use to find information and
make decisions have stayed basically the same.
Microsoft realized the status quo left much to be desired, so in 2008 we conducted a series of
studies to determine common online practices, to understand how people are using the Internet
and search, and to find the areas most in need of improvement. Among our findings among
people who participated in the studies are the following:
-
Users are dissatisfied: Search results for 50 percent of the queries fail to meet the
consumer’s needs (they are either abandoned or refined), and 35 percent of people
express dissatisfaction with search today — and this percentage increases when they
move into task-focused activities (such as getting local information or finding a product).
-
Users want help searching: 72 percent of people surveyed said current search results are
too disorganized, nearly half of all search queries are a repeat of a previous search, and
half the searches are eventually refined.
-
Users are focused more on tasks and decisions: 66 percent of people reported using
search engines to make decisions, and long sessions are becoming more common, with
more than 46 percent of searchers’ time being spent on sessions more than 30 minutes
in length.
Despite all these issues, people are turning to search more often for help making decisions. They
are using search more often (50 percent of people surveyed), more frequently and for tasks that
are not well served with a list of links. Microsoft understands both the challenges searchers face
and the critical nature of search in their lives, and from this understanding the Microsoft search
engine Bing was born.
A New Engine to Meet Customer Needs
Microsoft wanted to peel away the layers standing between a user and information. We wanted
to remove the element of luck so often required to find what you’re looking for the first time
around. And we wanted to help users harness that information and take it to the next level:
making informed decisions.
In a world of excessive choice and too much information, it’s often difficult to make the right
decision. What you need is more than just a search engine; you need a decision engine that
provides useful tools to help you get what you want fast, rather than simply presenting a list of
Web links. Bing is such a decision engine. It provides an easy way to make more informed
choices. It organizes popular results by category to help you get the answers you’re looking for
without having to guess at the right way to formulate your query. And built right into Bing is a
set of intelligent tools to help you accomplish important tasks such as buying a product,
planning a trip or finding a local business.
Following is a highlight of the key design goals for “Bing and related features that collectively
are designed to make Internet search more enjoyable, less time consuming and more decisiondriven.
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First, a great decision engine needs to deliver great results. The fundamentals still have
room to grow. Relevance is still the top thing people care about. Users are becoming
more demanding and want one-click access to information whenever possible. In fact,
our studies showed that 35 percent of queries are still unsatisfied, and 24 percent are
abandoned. There are many ways in which direct access to information can be
improved and customers delighted.
-
Second, a great engine delivers a more organized experience. People are engaging in
sessions, not simple queries — 46 percent of people surveyed said that time spent on
search is in queries more than 30 minutes long, close to half of the queries are returns to
a previous task, and half still require refinement. In our customer research, users said an
organized search experience would be twice as useful to help them find information and
accomplish tasks faster.
-
Third, an engine of today should simplify tasks and provide insight to inform the many
decisions users have to make. Seventy-five percent of people say they use a search
engine to inform a decision for product purchase, 62 percent to find a local business or
destination, 45 percent to select a flight or hotel, and 43 percent for healthcare research.
This is not what traditional search engines are designed to do. As such, those tasks can
be tedious and complicated and are an opportunity for Bing to differentiate.
Grounded in this understanding of consumer behavior and needs, we’re pleased to introduce
“Bing,” the new decision engine that helps you overcome search overload and quickly make
more informed choices.
DELIVERING GREAT RESULTS: PUTTING THE BEST SEARCH RESULTS FORWARD
On the surface, the Bing Home Page may appear similar to others — a single search box as a
starting point, surrounded by colorful or currently relevant imagery. But click deeper and you’ll
discover so much more.
Home Page
Searchers often don’t know about the range of content engines can fetch for them. The Home
Page, with its rich imagery, informational hotspots, and clear and prominent links for images,
video, news and products, helps searchers choose the best scope for their query.
Try it: Hover over one of the hot spots on the Home Page to be taken to a fact you likely didn’t
know.
Auto-Suggest
Bing automatically suggests similar terms or common refinements that searchers have used in
the past or that Bing knows are related to the term you’re typing.
Try it: Go to http://Bing.com, and start typing “mahog” to see how Auto-Suggest can make the
task of typing your query easier.
Why: Nearly 50 percent of all queries are refined at some point in the process. People often
don’t know what words to use, as evinced by the fact that 30 percent of people use this feature
to help them search.
Best Match
Microsoft applied the same objective to the ease of finding information when it developed Best
Match. Rather than getting lost in the midst of all the other search results, Bing makes the best
result stand out from all the others. Best Match is designed to bring the most helpful
information from the most authoritative sites for your query — a top user request to help
prevent disappointment.
For example, suppose you’re looking for the UPS site so you can track that package you’re
expecting. After you enter a search query for UPS, Bing delivers the results and highlights the
result most closely matching your query at the top, under the heading Best Match. Best Match
also has innovative features to help save time and clicks, including the following:

Customer service numbers and hours of operation for retail and service sites

Deep search (so you can track that UPS package directly from your search result)

Sites Like This to help you navigate to other sites similar to your query

Deep Links so you can easily get to the task you’re trying to perform in the site

In cases where Bing is nearly sure there is a single, best answer for a query, it hides the
Web links to present a clean, clear page that gets you to your destination quickly.
Getting to the full Web results page is just a click away.
Click Here to View Screencast
Why: Nearly half of all queries are navigational, meaning a person is looking for a particular site
or service on the Web. In cases like UPS, 90 percent of the time people are simply going to this
site to track a package. We asked how we could make it easier for them to cut through the clicks
and complete their task.
Try it: Enter “Target,” “UPS” or “Facebook” in the search box.
Deep Links
Deep Links enable users to see inside the site without having to click into it and learn a new site
structure. With “Bing,” we focused on the quantity and quality of Deep Links. And with the
exception of the Best Match result, Bing orients Deep Links for the rest of the results horizontally
to conserve precious screen real estate, while still providing the direct, deep information access
people are asking for.
Why: Deep Links are one of the top drivers of satisfaction on a search results page, in part
because they greatly reduce the frequency of bad clicks.
Try it: Enter “Samsung,” “Seattle Times” or “Engadget”
Quick Previews of Your Results
Bing also includes a new feature that takes the captions you see beneath a search result a step
further. Hovering over a search result gives you a better sense of whether a site contains the
information you’re looking for without taking up valuable real estate on the search page. For
certain sites, Bing also offers Deep Links from within the preview, such as for the City of Seattle
Career Center.
Why: Twenty-four percent of clicks result in a rapid click back, meaning that people issue a
query, get a results page, click on a link and realize it isn’t what they are looking for and rapidly
click back. Offering rich previews was designed to eliminate the need for rapid click backs.
Try it:
1. Enter a search query for “Fourth of July.”
2. Bing will bring up search results, and when you hover over a search result, it displays an
orange diamond on the right side of the screen.
3. Moving your cursor to the diamond reveals a window containing a portion of copy from the
Web site in question.
4. You can then connect to the Web site from within the preview window by clicking on “Go to
the Page.”
Instant Answers
A great decision engine knows when to get out of your way and when to get you an answer
quickly. With that in mind, the Bing team focused on expanding Instant Answers. For example,
you might need to pick up your significant other from the airport but want to know if the flight
is on time. No problem. Simply enter your flight number (“UA875”), and Bing will pull the most
recent flight information and display it prominently in the results, saving you the hassle of going
to a separate page. Instant Answers are available for a variety of other topics and scenarios, such
as checking stock prices or figuring out the area code of the number that keeps calling your cell
phone.
In addition, Bing can often leverage your physical location to answer these queries. No longer
do you have to type “Boston Traffic” — simply type “traffic” when you’re sitting at your office
and you will be presented with a geographically relevant answer where applicable.
Lastly, Bing introduces Active Answers, which enable you to actually interact with the Instant
Answer on the search results page. Think of these as very simple miniapplications that enable
you to get what you need without having to make a potentially bad click.
Why: Again, nearly a quarter of clicks result in an almost-instantaneous return to the search
results page. If we can reduce the chance of a bad click, consumers can make the most of their
online time.
Try it: Enter “traffic,” “weather,” “206,” “MSFT,” “Veterans Day” and “movies.” For Active Answers,
try “free stock quotes,” “flight status,” “English dictionary” and then enter an appropriate query
into the text box. Note how the answer appears in line with the search results.
xRank
Quickly see what’s popular in the world and across the Web using Microsoft’s exclusive xRank
technology. Combining raw Web searches with our ranking formula, you can quickly see what’s
hot and what’s moving across the world. Once you click, you’re presented with graphs of the
topic’s historical interest along with a multimedia rich results page.
Try it: Enter “Britney Spears” on the Home Page. Then, click on xRank in the Explore Pane.
A RICHER, MORE ORGANIZED SEARCH EXPERIENCE
As mentioned earlier, roughly 72 percent of people consider search results too disorganized,
leading to errant searches, bad links and search sessions that are needlessly long.
To provide some order to the chaos, for many types of queries, Bing analyzes the search results
and organizes them so they’re easy to navigate, regardless of how many results it serves up. The
result? Web Groups — a categorizing of results that provides structure to what had essentially
been a set of blue links.
In addition, a consistent user experience across Web, video, images, shopping, travel, health and
other Bing services will prevent users from having to learn a new user interface for each type of
query — something many of today’s engines require. In much the same way Microsoft Office
brought together different applications under a single user interface, the Bing user experience
framework consolidates all the tools people use for search in a single place across the search
experience — the Explore Pane located on the left rail.
In the Explore Pane you’ll find a variety of search tools including Quick Tabs — essentially a
table of contents for the result categories, Related Searches and Session History, as well as
other tools specific to the type of search you’re doing.
Categorized Search and Web Groups
In Bing we are introducing a new concept called Categorized Search. Clearly, not every query fits
into a categorization schema, but the results of a large percentage of queries can be categorized
to optimize the retrieval of information. Traditionally, many engines have optimized around
being a keyword-to-URL mapping tool and designed their user experiences as such. Where they
have fallen down is in not enabling a user to explore a topic or find a variety of sources and
insights from the Web in an organized manner.
Categorized Search helps users organize their search in a number of ways — namely, by
increasing the authority and diversity of results.

Authority: Categorized Search can boost the delivery of results from authoritative results
to users. For health queries, for example, content from the Mayo Clinic or the Center for
Disease Control and Prevention can be delivered ahead of a person’s blog or doctor’s
Web site.

Diversity: Often results on a page are overinfluenced by search-engine optimization and
tend to be of a particular type. Insurance queries, for example, are dominated by rate
compare sites and providers rather than articles and other background information.
Categorized Search helps circumvent this tendency by showing results in groups that
add diversity to a page.
Categorized Search can also reduce the time and effort of wading through hundreds of links.
Bing does this by grouping the top search results into categories known as Web Groups, which
are based on the most frequently used refinements for a given search topic. Web Groups appear
when a term falls into one of our many covered categories and they change in response to the
query. For example, a city term may include weather, airport, restaurants and hotel groups, while
a celebrity may include biography, movies, images and video. In addition, Microsoft is
integrating our Powerset technology directly into Web Groups where appropriate. Look for the
Reference Group to see how Powerset technology makes it easy to get to the most relevant
information about the topic you’re researching.
Click Here to View Screencast
Why: According to a Microsoft-commissioned survey, only 32 percent of search queries are
sufficiently organized, so organizational tools such as Web groups break down the results in a
manner relevant to the topic. And Web Groups also help you track the types of results you’re
viewing and easily navigate to what you’re looking for while scrolling from page to page of
results.
Try it: Enter “Hyundai Sonata,” “U2,” “Robbie Williams,” “diabetes,” “Desperate Housewives” or
“megamouth shark” and scroll through the search results. Note how they are categorized into
sections. You can expand any of the sections simply by clicking on the header.
The Current List of Web Group Topics
At launch, Bing will deliver Web Groups for a variety of query topics (below). We’ll add
additional galleries to this list over time in response to what people are searching for and doing
with Bing:
 Automobiles (car models, car manufacturers)
 Travel/local (countries, cities, states and points of interest such as stadiums, parks and
passes)
 People (celebrities, athletes, musicians, bands, politicians, etc.)
 Sports (teams from the NBA, NFL, NHL and MLB)
 Health (cancer, diet, over-the-counter and prescription drugs, symptoms, genetic and
conditional disease, injury trauma)
 Entertainment (popular television shows and movies)
 Retail (certain electronics such as cameras, cell phones and optics products)
 Events (Oscars, Fourth of July, NASCAR, etc.)
Explore Pane
Running up the left side of the screen, the Explore Pane includes a table of contents of the
various Web Groups generated by your query (called Quick Tabs), followed by a list of links to
Related Searches and the past searches in your Session History. In addition, the Explore Pane
changes its function based on what you’re searching for. As you’ll see in the video and image
example, common refinements appear in the pane when searching within those scopes. When
querying for news, products or local information, the contents of the Explore Pane change to
reflect the most common tasks the user has to perform to get to their answer.
Let’s take a look at the most common set of features that will appear in the Explore Pane when
searching.
Click Here to View Screencast
Quick Tabs
Quick Tabs offer easy access to the Web Groups relevant to your search.
These tabs put the most common refinements for your query term at the
top left of the Explore Pane. The Quick Tab elements map to the Web
Groups throughout the results page. Clicking on any of the elements will
automatically execute a query focused just on the Quick Tab refinement.
Why: We know that nearly half of all queries are refined at some point
during a search session. Quick Tabs and Web Groups help users
understand the nature of available information at a glance and enable
them to easily narrow down their query and get to the results they care
about.
Try it:
1. Enter a search query of “San Francisco,” which returns a list of results categorized by several
Web Groups, including “map,” “airport,” “restaurants,” “hotels” and “weather.”
2. Click on “airport,” filtering out all the results not related to the San Francisco airport.
3. Then select “images” to narrow the results just to images about San Francisco.
4. Then select “video” to deliver the video experience within the search user interface.
5. Hover over a video to play snippets of the content, or click on the video to watch the clip in
its entirety on the hosting Web site.
Viewing Images and Video in Bing
Unlike many competitors’ sites, the Infinite Scroll feature in Bing eliminates pagination of image
search results, so you don’t have to wait for the next page to load.
Bing also allows you to filter the images and video based on a variety of factors. Images can be
filtered by size, aspect ratio, color, style and face (whether it’s a close-up, a head-and-shoulders
shot, or something entirely different). Video can be filtered by duration, aspect ratio, resolution
or source.
There are more than 16 million videos in the Bing index, and it pulls the video from several
sources, including MSN, AOL, MTV, ESPN, YouTube, MySpace, Daily Motion, Metacafe and Hulu.
Soon you’ll be able to search for and view full-length episodes of CBS programming via Hulu, as
well.
Related Searches
Related Searches is another refinement tool in the Explore Pane. Based on your query, Related
Searches provides a list of queries that are relevant to your topic.
For example, a query for “U2” will return a list of searches related to their videos, as well as other
entertainment celebrities with whom they’ve been associated. The list of Related Searches
appears below the Quick Tabs in the Explore Pane, providing a convenient tool to expand or
adjust your search terms if you don’t like your results or simply want to exercise your curiosity.
Why: Many times users don’t know what words to use in their query, especially topics in which
they are not experts. Related Searches presents a list of multidimensional refinements that can
help users narrow their query without knowing a great deal about the topic on which they are
searching.
Try it: Enter “diabetes” and look at Related Searches. Note terms that go beyond simple query
modifications (such as hypoglycemia) and modifications that help narrow down your specific
query (such as type 2 diabetes).
Session History
There may also be times when you’re looking for information you came across in a previous
search. Rather than initiate a completely new query, Bing provides access to your Session History
in the Explorer Pane. Session History remembers your queries within a single browser session for
up to 48 hours, making it easy to track your past queries, the results you clicked on and even the
time you accessed a link. Of course, you also have the option to turn Search History off, clear the
contents of Search History, or just remove individual items from Search History.
Using our enhanced My Search Folders view, you can also save your searches in a local folder on
your machine for future reference or to your Windows Live SkyDrive folders (when logged into
Bing with your Windows Live ID), where you can access them from any computer with Internet
access. As well, you can easily share your saved searches on Facebook, with your Windows Live
contacts, or through e-mail simply by clicking on the icons on your My Search Folders page.
Why: Nearly 50 percent of searches are repeats, and 5 percent of queries make up almost 47
percent of the time spent searching. Session History provides a way to remember the work
you’ve done online so you can spend more time finding new information.
Click Here to View Screencast
Try it:
1. Click on the “manage” link underneath the list of previous search queries at the bottom of
the Explore Pane.
2. The history management page appears. From here you can browse through past searches,
the clicked sites and the time, identify the query you’re looking for, and click on the link to
pick up where you left off.
3. To save a search, click on “Save and Share” on the right of the screen. From there, you will
see your recent searches and the results you clicked on. Simply check the boxes next to the
results you want to save, and hit the “Save” button at the top. From there, you can create a
new folder into which you would like the result saved or create a new one. You can save the
results directly on your local drive, or you can sign in with your Windows Live ID and save
the results to your Windows Live SkyDrive. As well, you can easily send search results to your
friends via e-mail, MSN Messenger and your Facebook feed.
4. Alternatively, suppose you’ve been shopping for a birthday present for your significant other
and need to erase your tracks. The history management page also allows you to delete some
or all of your past search queries from Search History.
5. You can always shut off Session History from the search results page.
Enhanced Video Experience
Customers often tell us they want an easier, more comprehensive way to find the great video
content available across the Web. The new video experience in Bing provides a number of
features that make finding, previewing and watching videos a better experience. From our index
of full-length television shows to our ability to search across sites such as Hulu and YouTube,
and our innovative filtering tools that help you narrow down your search, video search in Bing is
an exceptionally comprehensive place for finding video on the Web.
Why: Customers are increasingly using search to find the rich video content hosted on the Web.
Video searches have grown more than 114 percent in the past year. Although consumers tell us
they love the massive amount of video on the Web, they also tell us they want an easier way to
find professionally produced video from networks, labels and news providers.
Try it:
1. Click on “Videos” from the Bing Home Page.
2. Click on “TV Shows” from the Explore Pane.
3. Note the easy navigation of genre from the Explore Pane and the center search results pane.
4. Now, search for “house” from the top search box.
5. In the Explore Pane, click on “Source” and choose from where you want to see your results. If
you want to see full-length, high-quality video, choose Hulu.
6. Search for “david blaine street magic,” and click on “Source.” Choose YouTube to see the
results narrowed down.
SIMPLIFIES TASKS AND DELIVERS A SET OF INSIGHTS TO HELP MAKE DECISIONS
Search engines have always been more about helping you find information, and less about
putting that information to use. Microsoft set out to change that with “Bing.” Through the
research, we identified the following as areas where people wanted more assistance in
accomplishing tasks and making decisions: shopping; researching the symptoms of an illness;
making travel arrangements; and looking for local restaurants, entertainment and other
activities.
There’s no question the Internet has become an indispensible tool for getting things done.
Microsoft found that 66 percent of people surveyed have grown accustomed to using the
Internet as a vehicle for completing tasks and a source of information for making decisions.
Unfortunately, many search engines are more useful in helping you find information, and less
useful in helping you use that information to make decisions. We set out to change that with
Bing by creating a decision engine optimized for shopping, local search, travel and healthcare —
the most frequent tasks or types of decisions on the Internet.
Bing SHOPPING
Everyone appreciates a good deal, and online is typically the best place to start looking.
Unfortunately, finding the best deal online can sometimes be just as tedious as bargain hunting
brick-and-mortar style. Bing takes the online shopping experience a step further through tools
that help you scour the Internet for customer and expert reviews, search for a product based on
a variety of features and characteristics, find the best deal available online, and even get cash
back with your purchase. Combined, these tools help make your product purchase decision a
snap.
Click Here to View Screencast
Home Page
There are two ways to launch your product search from the Bing Home Page: Clicking on the
shopping link will take you directly to the Bing Shopping Home Page, from which you can
search for a product. Alternatively, you can start a search query in the search window of the Bing
Home Page.
Try it:
1. Enter a search for “digital camera” from the Bing Home Page.
2. Click on the shopping Quick Tab in the Explore Pane, which subsequently takes you to a Bing
Shopping page where all the digital cameras are sorted by Best Match.
3. Alternatively, click on the shopping link from the Bing Home Page.
4. Enter “digital camera” in the search window on the Bing Shopping Home Page.
Product Search
Search results on the Bing product listings page are automatically sorted by best match, but can
also be sorted by price, user rating and expert rating. Bing Shopping also provides search
refinement tools in the Explore Pane to help in your search. The Explore Pane for product search
is divided into four categories: product category, brand, price and whether a product qualifies
for Live Search cashback. Each of these is dissected further, allowing you to filter products based
on a specific price range, preferred brand and particular characteristic or feature.
Try it:
1. Using the same search for “digital camera,” select “$75-100” as the price range.
2. Select “Olympus” as the brand.
On the right side, see the “Popular Features“ heading that shows you for that product
category what most popular considerations people are using when purchasing these
products. Click on “Photo Quality,” and you will be taken to a listing of Olympus cameras
that have a high user rating for photo quality.
Opinion Ranking
Clicking on a particular product surfaces the product details page, where one of the first things
you’ll notice is the link to user reviews and expert reviews (along with product details and
compare prices). To provide these rankings, Bing scours the Web for consumer product reviews
and also relies on the expertise of partners such as CNET. A product’s overall ranking is visible
on the product listings page, but clicking on “User Reviews” (on the product details page)
provides a much more nuanced assessment of a product based on each of its features using
comments from users across the Web. The sentiment extraction capability in Bing can give you a
very detailed look at how one particular feature stacks up against the competition. Bing does all
this so you don’t have to go to each of the opinion sites and read lengthy opinions about a
product’s positive or negative features.
Try it:
1. Using the same filtered “digital camera” search results, select the camera of your choice.
2. From the product details page, click on “User Reviews.”
3. Select “Photo Quality” to see comments about the clarity of pictures that Bing pulled from
the users’ overall review of the product.
Live Search Cashback
Currently, Bing Shopping lists products for more than 540 online retailers that participate in Live
Search cashback, a program that reimburses you with a percentage of the product’s price. The
compare prices page lists the price at those retailers where the product you’re shopping for is
available and highlights participating retailers.
The compare prices page shows the respective percentage of Live Search cashback savings for
each retailer. Clicking on the percentage shows the amount of savings and what the net sales
price is after the discount. When you click on “Go to Store,” an interstitial page will then ask for
your e-mail address and verify that Live Search cashback is in force before you complete the
transaction.
Among the list of participating retailers are the following:

B & H Foto & Electronics Corp.

Backcountry.com

Barnes & Noble.com

BeachCamera.com

Buy.com

Drugstore.com Inc.

Gap Online

HP Home & Home Office Store

J&R Electronics Inc.

Lenovo

MacMall

OfficeMax Inc.

Overstock.com

Sears, Roebuck and Co.

Stubhub Inc.

Target.com

Zappos.com Inc.
Bing LOCAL
Seventy two percent of searches for local businesses, restaurants and entertainment venues start
in a search engine, but today’s engines don’t do enough help you make an informed decision
about the quality of the meal, the nature of the dining experience or the availability of tickets.
Bing Local provides you with tools to help you make those informed decisions by bringing the
relevant information to you: user reviews, hours of operation, and one-click directions and traffic
reports to hasten you to your destination of choice.
Click Here to View Screencast
Home Page
You can easily access local search from the Bing Home Page in one of two ways: Clicking on the
“Maps” link will bring you to the Bing Maps Home Page, at which point you can either enter a
search query or select from one of the business categories and allow Bing to surface businesses
based on your physical location. You can also conduct a search directly from the Bing Home
Page in your area and click on the top local listings that appear first on the search engine results
page.
Try it
1. From the Bing Home Page, submit a query for “New York sushi.”
2. Click on “Top local listings for sushi near New York, N.Y.”
3. Alternatively, from the Bing Home Page, click on the “Local” link.
4. Enter “New York sushi” in the search window on the Bing Local Home Page.
Rich Listing Results
Search results within Bing Local provide a quick snapshot of information relevant to your
decision. For example, a restaurant listing calls out the phone number, type of cuisine, location,
hours of operation, price range and availability of parking. In addition, search results provide a
quick link to customer reviews, one-click directions, the menu and a bird’s-eye view of the
location. Bing enables you to easily enter your starting location right from the results page so
you can quickly get to where you need to go.
Details pages for results also include a list of nearby businesses that are relevant to your search.
For example, the list related to a restaurant listing might highlight the location of nearby
theaters, coffee shops and parking.
Search Refinement
Bing Local sorts search results based on Best Match, but it also gives you the option of sorting
based on rating or distance. And much like Bing Shopping, the Explore Pane in Bing Local offers
a variety of refinement tools to help you make informed decisions. In the case of restaurants, the
top of the Explore Pane features related category that allow you to focus on a specific
neighborhood or type of restaurant within your initial query. In addition, you can filter by rating,
by price, by atmosphere, by ability to make reservations, by payment method and by availability
of parking.
Try it:
1. Within the current search listings for sushi restaurants in New York, click on “Romantic”
under “Atmosphere.”
2. Click on “Four-Star” under “Ratings”
3. From the filtered search listings, click on “Yama”
Scorecard
The recommendations of past customers play a huge role in the businesses we frequent. With
that in mind, the Scorecard feature on Bing Local details page uses a color-coded bar graph to
prominently display the rankings of a business against key criteria. In the case of restaurants, the
criteria might include atmosphere, food quality, entertainment and drinks. The rankings are
generated by consumer reviews as well as content from partners such as Citysearch, Yelp and
Judy’sBook. The Scorecard also sums up the number of reviewers for each criteria and the
percentage that are positive.
Sentiment Extraction
Bing Local provides a link to customer reviews, but the Sentiment Extraction feature builds on
Scorecard, allowing you to zero in on comments relevant to a particular criterion.
Try it: From the Yama details page, click on “Show Reviews” next to the criterion of your choice
in the Scorecard. Then scroll down to get a snapshot of customers’ past experiences at this West
Village neighborhood sushi bar in New York.
One-Click Directions
Often times, especially when you’re in your hometown, you have a basic understanding of how
to navigate the area, so by default Bing provides directions from the nearest freeway or main
thoroughfare to your final destination. This saves you the often multistep set of directions of
going from your home or work to the highway — something you likely already know how to do.
Bing Local will surface a set of directions for each relevant point of the compass when you click
on “1-Click Directions” (either from the search listings page or search details page). If door-todoor directions are needed, you can access them by clicking on “A Specific Location” from the
“1-Click Directions” page. You can also access a variety of other navigational tools such as
current traffic by clicking on “Go to Live Search Maps.”
Try it:
1. Click on “1-Click Directions” to see the various navigation options to Yama.
2. Click on “A Specific Location” to submit a specific address, then click on “Cancel.”
3. Click on “Go to Live Search Maps” underneath the map.
4. Cycle through the different views by selecting the Aerial, Bird’s eye and Traffic tabs at the
top of the map.
Bing TRAVEL
The primary focus of Bing Travel is helping you find the best deals on flights and hotel
accommodations so you can make informed decisions about your travel arrangements. Bing
Travel accomplishes this in a variety of ways: using Live Search Farecast and historical data to
predict the rise and fall of ticket prices in the near-term, comparing prices against more than
100 travel, hotel and airline Web sites, and alerting you to special deals broken out by criteria
such as weekend trips, record low prices or flights to family vacation destinations.
Why: Forty-five percent of online travel arrangements begin within a search engine. Integrating
a travel decision engine within Bing provides an easy way to start and finish your travel
arrangements.
Click Here to View Screencast
Home Page
You can start a search for travel arrangements directly from the Bing Home Page, much the
same way you initiated searches for Bing Shopping and Bing Local. Clicking on “Travel” will bring
you directly to the Bing Travel Home Page. Across the top of the page are links to “Flights,”
“Hotels,” “Airfare Deals” and “Destinations.”
Whether you need a flight for a particular day or destination, or your schedule is more flexible,
you can access information directly from the Bing Travel Home Page. And because Bing Travel is
based on Live Search Farecast technology, it takes much of the guesswork out of knowing when
to travel, the affordable places to travel to and when to purchase your ticket.
Once an airport of origin and airport of destination have been entered in the main Search
Flights box, you can access information about the latest deals from either one (“Airfare Deals…”
on the right side). You can also find out the optimum dates to travel during the next 30 days,
based on the historical behavior of ticket prices (“Graph Fares over 30 Days”).
If you’re tied to a specific date or destination, you can enter it in the appropriate window in the
Search Flights box on the Home Page, choose the travel sites you want to compare prices with,
and click on “Search.”
Try it:
1. From the Bing Travel Home Page, enter “Seattle” as your airport of origin and “San
Francisco” as your destination.
2. Click on “Airfare Deals From Seattle” and note the link in the upper-right corner for “Deals to
Destination Cities.”
3. Click on the “When to Travel” link to see the predicted rise and fall of ticket prices over the
next month’s time. (You can access the same graph from the Home Page by using the
“Graph Fares over 30 Days” link.)
4. Going back to the Bing Travel Home Page, click on “Search” to see a list of the various flights
and ticket prices available for your date of choice.
5. Note on the left side of the screen that the “7-Day Low Fare Prediction” tells you, with a
percentage of confidence, whether now is the right time to purchase that ticket.
Instant Answer
You can also submit a query from the Bing Home Page, such as “Flights from Seattle to San
Francisco,” which will surface an Instant Answer, including a quick snapshot of the lowest priced
ticket, whether ticket prices appear to be rising or falling, a 30-day outlook on ticket prices and
links to additional deals from Seattle or to San Francisco.
Detailed Flight Results
When you submit a search for tickets on a specific date, Bing Travel surfaces a detailed listing of
available flights. Each result includes the ticket price, airline, estimated departure and arrival
times, airports of origin and destination, number of layovers and estimated flying time. Bing also
offers little enhancements to make your decision easier, such as a clear indication whether it’s a
red-eye flight or has an especially short connection.
Microsoft’s exclusive Live Search Farecast technology helps take the guesswork out of knowing
when to buy an airline ticket. As many know, the market for airline tickets is incredibly dynamic
with prices for the same flight changing day by day. Farecast uses a patented algorithm to help
predict whether the ticket you want is likely to increase or decrease in price over the next seven
days, which helps make the decision to buy much easier.
The Time Grid makes picking that perfect flight easy by showing you the fares based on what
time of day you leave.
Flight: Search Refinement
The Explore Pane in Bing Travel allows you to fine tune your search results based on the number
of stops, departure and arrival time, airlines of choice, price range, airports, flight quality (redeye, long layover or short connection), and flight duration. You can also click on “Compare
Airlines” to find out if there’s a booking fee, a low-fare guarantee or any online mileage
promotions.
Try it: On the search results page, modify your criteria in the Explore Pane under “Stops”
(number of stops on your flight), “Times” (window of time in which you want to take off or land),
“Connection Airports”, and “Flight Quality” to see how these changes impact the number of
search results and price range.
Hotel Rate Key
Bing Travel allows you to filter hotel search results using a variety of criteria such as amenities,
price range and neighborhood, but what sets Bing Travel apart from most other sites is the hotel
Rate Key — a color-coded rating system that indicates whether the current rate for a specific
hotel appears to be a deal — any rate lower than past rates for that particular hotel. The Rate
Key makes this assessment by comparing the current rate found for the hotel to its past rates on
the same travel dates or same days of the week. When combined with Map View, the hotel Rate
Key allows you to compare the hotels with the best rates against those with the best location
and find the one providing the best overall value.
Try it:
1. From the Bing Travel Home Page (click on “Hotels” to load the appropriate search window),
enter a search for hotels in San Francisco.
2. Using the filter tools in the Explore Pane, select hotels that have “Internet” and “Business
Center.”
3. Click on Map View to see the locations of each hotel and the color-coded rating that
denotes the value of its current rate.
Connection to Microsoft Live Search Maps, Photosynth
On top of the value in Bing Travel, you can also use Microsoft Live Search Maps to search
through Wikipedia articles and learn more about your travel destination (such as Rome or
Istanbul). And with Microsoft Photosynth you can take a virtual tour using panoramic photocollages created by people who have been there before you.
Bing HEALTH
Self-diagnosis is no substitute for the advice and expertise of a trained physician, but when you,
a friend or a family member start exhibiting unrecognizable symptoms, the availability of
information online can help you decide whether a trip to the emergency room is in order.
Bing Health provides you with access to medical information from nine trusted medical
resources, including the Mayo Clinic, the American Cancer Society and MedlinePlus. You’ll have
easy access to information on symptoms, diagnosis and medical procedures, as well as issues
related to drugs and substances, personal health and alternative medicine.
Why: Forty-five percent of people use the Internet to research what ails them and how to treat
it.
Try it:
1. From the Bing Home Page, simply submit your query from the Home Page search window.
Enter a query for “Hepatitis C.”
2. In the subsequent search results, click on “Symptoms” from Quick Tabs (in Explore Pane).
3. Note the Instant Answer (When to consult a doctor) that appears as a Best Match. Clicking
on that result takes you to an article from the Mayo Clinic where you can find trusted and
authoritative information.
Bing for Mobile
Bing is designed for the PC, and it offers a better way to search the entire Web, but we also have
Bing for Mobile, which is designed specifically for quick, task-oriented searches of local
information on mobile devices. Bing for Mobile is available in two versions — one for online
access via the browser and the other as a downloadable application. Both versions excel with
local searches and mapping, and search results are formatted for smaller screens.
Bing for Mobile is the updated version of Live Search Mobile. We aren’t announcing any new
features at this time, but new versions of the application will be released soon. Find more
information on Bing for Mobile at http://m.Bing.com.
Bing Toolbars
Toolbars offer you an easy and convenient way to access “Bing.” Bing will power both the
Windows Live Toolbar (http://toolbar.live.com) and the MSN Toolbar (http://toolbar.msn.com),
bringing you the value and power of our new engine to your fingertips, regardless of where you
are on the Web. Shortly after the Bing launch, Microsoft will also release a new version of the
MSN Toolbar (version 4.0). Using Microsoft Silverlight, MSN Toolbar 4.0 will give you easy ways
to customize your toolbar options, and alert you to Bing offers, such as Live Search cashback,
when they are available to you.
CONCLUSION
The Internet has changed and so have you. We set out to provide a dynamic Internet experience
that responds to that change and adapts to how you use the Internet.
With Bing you get more than a search engine. You get a powerful decision engine that helps
you make more informed decisions by accomplishing the following:
•
•
•
•
Reducing the number of wasted clicks (which currently account for 24 percent of clicks)
Adding structure to the current chaos of search results
Finding Instant Answers quickly and with only a single click
Providing organized access to user and expert opinions about products and local
businesses
APPENDIX
Bing Top Features


Auto-Suggest. Offers intelligent alternatives for search queries
Instant Answers. Serves up information within search results, eliminating the need to
click on anything





Best Match. Provides useful links and information for definitive sites
Related Searches. Points to deeper information available with one click
Deep Links. Enables easy, direct access to relevant content within a site
Quick View. Summarizes a Web site at a glance, before clicking through to the site
Smart Video Preview. Previews a 30-second clip of videos simply by scrolling onto
them


Infinite Scroll. Provides easily browsed image results without clicking to a new page
Quick Tabs. Tailors search results with one click
Bing Instant Answers
Business and Finance
Company Overviews
Displays company overviews
Appears in secondary location after
and Fortune 1000 rankings for
stock answer: MSFT, Microsoft
the top 1,000 companies from
stock quote
CNN Money
Appears in secondary location
without stock answer: GM
Appears in primary location: GM
overview, 3M company profile
Earnings
Provides earnings information
Microsoft earnings, IBM earnings
for a company
Economic
Offers a summary of current
economic crisis, financial crisis, U.S.
economic statistics
recession, unemployment rate,
foreclosure rate
Finance
Displays company stock
U.S.:MSFT, DRC, Sandisk stock,
quotes, funds and news; ability
NOOF, Quote MSFT GOOG YHOO,
to search multiple quotes at
FGRIX
once
Interest Rates
Provides a range (low average,
interest rates, mortgage rates,
median and high average)
mortgage rates Ohio, 30 year
interest rates for a variety of
mortgage rates, auto loan rates, CD
loan and credit forms
rates
rates by bank: Citi, Bank of America
Job Salary
Provides users with salary
Seattle software engineer salary,
information based on job title
programmer pay in Seattle,
and location
software engineer pay
Sports
Auto Racing
Provides NASCAR, IRL (Indy
Series: NASCAR racing, Sprint Cup
Racing League) and F1
Series, Sprint Cup
(Formula One) coverage for
Event: Daytona 500 race, Daytona
queries about the sport, a race
500, Daytona 500 schedule
or a driver
Driver: Matt Kenseth, Kevin Harvick,
A. J. Allmendinger
Cricket
Captures the latest match
live cricket scores, cricket score
scores and schedules for
England, cricket fixtures, cricket
cricket and provides an Instant
schedule Australia
Answer
Golf
NHL Hockey
Provides answers about
Series: PGA, PGA tour, PGA golf
professional golf for queries
Event: Honda Classic, the British
referring to the sport in
Open, U.S. Open
general, a series of matches, a
Player: Tiger Woods, Chris Couch,
major tournament or a player
Mark Wilson
Schedules, game detail and
League: NHL hockey, NHL, pro
player performance
hockey
information for NHL hockey
Team: Vancouver Canucks,
Pittsburgh Penguins
Player: Sidney Crosby, Matt
Hunwick, Blake Wheeler
Soccer
Provides answers for queries
David Beckham, Premier League,
about MLS and European
Seattle Sounders
leagues
Sports (General)
Offers scores for games in
pro baseball, Seattle Mariners,
progress as well as team and
Ichiro Suzuki, NBA, Boston Celtics
player stats
Tennis
Provides answers about pro
Series: men's tennis, pro tennis,
tennis in general, a specific
grand slam
match or a player
Event: Australian Open, Medibank
International, Heineken Open
Player: Mario Anzic, Enzo Artoni,
Ana Ivanovic
UFC and MMA fighters
Displays mixed martial arts
Chuck Liddell, Dan Saveren, Tito
fighters from the UFC and
Ortiz
other organizations
WWE Wrestling
Finds basic info about WWE
Triple H, Shawn Michaels
wrestlers and WWE events
Travel and Navigation
Snow Reports
During the season, snow
snow report Seattle
conditions at mountain resorts
worldwide (data feed from
OnTheSnow.com)
Hotels
Events
Search for a hotel, find the top
cheap hotels, Hilton hotels, hotels
three deals, cheapest rate, and
in Europe, Europe hotels, Expedia
determine whether you should
hotels, travel
buy or hold
London
Displays information and links
events in Chicago, concerts,
for related top events, around
football tickets, broadway shows
a user's location (implicit
location) or around the
location specified in user query
Flight Status
Provides up-to-date flight
UA 820, United 820, United Airlines
information
820, flight status United, flight
status AA 7147
Flights
Maps (Local)
Submit a flight search, find the
cheap flights, flights from Seattle,
top three deals, cheapest rate,
flights to Seattle, flights from
and determine whether you
Seattle to San Francisco, Alaska
should buy or hold
Airlines flights
Map of a specific location or
71 Hillside Ave., Melrose, MA; map
point of interest
of Mumbai; where is Norman,
Oklahoma?
Time Zone
Displays current time for a
time in Copenhagen
specific location
Traffic (Local)
Shows traffic congestion and
commute, New York traffic, traffic
accidents
U.S. Travel Attractions
Provides the top attractions
Seattle attractions, Seattle
and related references for a
destination guide
given destination query
Weather
Provides forecast for a specific
Climate, weather today, Ottawa
location
weather
Shopping
Autos
Shows user research, user
BMW 325i, used 2003 BMW, quality
review data for autos by make
used cars
and model, and new and used
purchase availability
Commerce
Provides important refinement
mp3 players, digital cameras
links such as brand, category,
Garmin GPS, Canon digital cameras,
user opinions and price to help
Gap jeans
people refine their searches
Canon PowerShot, Microsoft Office
Displays top product and cash-
Garmin Nuvi 350, Nikon D40
back offer for the query
Displays detailed info about a
particular product such as spec
attributes, price range, user
review rating, etc.
Coupons
Lists coupon codes or links
Dell, Hertz coupons
with embedded coupons
Gas Prices
Location-detection-based
gas prices, cheapest gas, cheapest
answer that uses MSN content
gas for Seattle, cheapest gas for
to show the cheapest gas
98121
prices by ZIP code or city
Products
Shows product information
Canon PowerShot SD600, Canon
and review summary for a
PowerShot SD400, Zune, Nikon
product; search for a product
D80
that has not yet been released
Entertainment and Recreation
Casual Games
Discover casual online games
Amazonian, Atlantis Quest,
provided by MSN
Bankshot Billiards Cutthroat,
Bejeweled
Green
Information about green topics
carbon footprint, green driving tips,
natural cleaning products
Health
Provides information relevant
diabetes, Lipitor, sprained ankle,
to a broad range of health
diabetes medications, eczema
topics and detailed information
medications
about them
Horoscope
Displays weekly, daily and
Horoscope, Pisces horoscope, daily
monthly horoscope
Pisces horoscope, weekly Pisces
information
horoscope, monthly pisces
horoscope
Images
Shows top image results
cat images, panda images, pictures
of elephant
Lottery
Displays winning numbers for
lottery, Powerball results
lottery games
Movie Showtimes
Movie showtimes, trailers and
Coraline showtimes, AMC Movie
other information for in-
Showtimes, showtimes 90028
theater movies
Multimedia Video
Shows top video results
cat videos, South Park videos
Reality TV Show Results
Offers information about who
American Idol, Project Runway
got kicked off and who's
remaining on your favorite
reality TV show
Recipes and Drinks
Provides users with cuisine-
fire roasted tomato soup, beef
based recipes (e.g., Indian and
wheat berry chili, hot collard stew,
Italian) and ingredient-based
rusty nail (drink)
recipes (e.g., potato and
mushroom) or a combination
of both
Seasonal Events
TV Guides and Shows
Displays information about
Halloween, NBA All-Star game,
holidays and events you want
Academy Awards, Cannes Film
to know more about
Festival
Find out what's on TV for
What's on TV, TV guide for Seattle,
specific locations
Seinfeld Seattle, When is Deal or
No Deal is playing, Sportscenter
Who's Who
Find basic info about people
Paula Marchewka Koczur, John
eminent in a field
Keeler, John Johnson
(noncelebrities)
xRank
Find out where your favorite
Jessica Alba, Barack Obama
celebrity ranks in online
popularity, and learn more
about them
News
News
Shows top news stories and/or
Obama inauguration, Super Bowl
videos, provides new from a
teams, recession, South Asia,
specific search (e.g., "cnn")
election
Shows content from RSS
RSS and Headlines
New York Times, Seattle Times
results
Software and Technical Search
File Extensions
Enables users to search for file
.docx file format, .pdf extension
extension names and get a
description of what the file
format is
Man Page
Provides answers for *nix man
man cat, man grep, man tar
pages
Microsoft Knowledge Base
Shows information for specific
MS08-051, MS08-050
Microsoft Knowledge Base
articles or technical support
issues
Microsoft Learning Products
Provides answers to customers
Course 8505, 9780735619937,
searching for Microsoft
Exam 74-132
Learning products, such as
books, courses, exams,
certifications, learning plans
and e-learning
Microsoft Security Patch
Find out what the latest
MSFT security patches, Microsoft
Microsoft Security patches are
security patch, latest security
patches
Windows Live Experiences
Software Titles for Download (non-Microsoft)
Find out information about
Live Photos, Hotmail on Mac,
Windows Live experiences
Messenger Video Call
Shows title, description, ratings
Solitaire
and download link for software
titles
Xbox Games and Products
Provides results for Xbox game
Halo 3
titles and products, showing
info about each and linking the
user to the Xbox Web site
Reference
Academics
Provides an answer for queries
<Researcher Name>, Dr.
related to academic
<Researcher Name>, Prof.
researchers
<Researcher Name>, paper by
<Researcher Name>
Facts
Answers fact-based questions
population of Ireland, Who won
Super Bowl XXX?, Seattle ZIP code,
fear of cats, Ernest Hemingway
birthday, Christmas 2008
Freebase
Obtains answers to natural
What did picasso paint?, Who
language questions about the
painted dejeuner sur l'herbee?,
visual arts, business, etc.
Rodin sculptures, impressionist
paintings, impressionist painters,
Who is Hulk Hogan?, Who is
George Bush?, Bill Gates, Who did
Microsoft acquire?, Who founded
Microsoft?, Where is Microsoft
headquartered?
Sacred Text
Look up passages from the
John 1:17, 1; Nephi 3:1; Al-Anfal;
Bible, Qur'an and Book of
John 1
Mormon
Wikipedia Answer
Takes users to a Wikipedia
Answer based on gallery queries
entry
Useful Tools
Answer Showcase
Provides query fields for
calculator, currency conversion,
specific functions or features
dictionary, encyclopedia, equations,
that consumers are searching
stock, sports, package tracking,
for
time zone, unit conversion, VIN,
instant answers
Area Codes
Looks up the location of an
area code 724
area code or ZIP code
Calculator
Offers calculator functions and
24 * 32 / 67, (sin 100) * 50, 2% of
constants
25, 20 modulo 9, 4th root of 37,
5%4, arc tan 25, gravitational
constant, answer to life the
universe and everything
Conversions
Converts one unit of measure
How many miles in a kilometer?, 10
to another
pounds in grams, 100 deg Celsius
in Kelvin, 100 pounds in kg, 15
grams in ounces, What is 63
degrees F in C?, 63 degrees F in C
Currency
Converts from one currency to
another
convert 100 dollars to yen
Dictionary
Defines a word
define pert, meaning of pert, pert
definition, definition of pert, what is
pert
Equations
Package Tracking
Phone Book (Local)
Popular URLs
Related Topics
Solves simple algebraic
2x + 5 = 10, solve q^2 -4 = 9, 2y^2
equations
+ 4y -10 = 9
Tracks DHL, UPS and other
DHL 2710172150,
packages by tracking number
1z9999999999999999
Location and phone number
Rhinebeck, NY restaurants, Old
for a specific item or category
Navy, Phoenix tattoo shops
Provides URL to Web site that
bingo.com, cstd.ca,
user is searching for
flightarrivals.com
Provides links for related topics
Canon, Paris Hilton, Barack Obama
to the original query. For
example, if the user queries for
Canon, some of the related
topics would be Nikon,
Olympus, Casio, etc.
Thesaurus
Displays synonyms and
synonym repetitive, other words for
antonyms
repetitive, synonyms for repetitive,
repetitive synonyms, synonyms
repetitive
Translation
Translates foreign language
juegos, bolsa de trabajo, translate
queries to English and presents
juegos, translate games to Spanish,
the translation as a query
games in Spanish
suggestion; also available in
natural language
Unit Conversions
Converts between different
How many feet in a meter?, 2 liters
units of measurement
to gallons, number of lbs in 6.54kg,
convert from 8C to F
VIN
Vehicle lookup by VIN
3fafp11392r187591,
2hnyd18834h504321,
wbxpa73474wb29428