bing

Microsoft rolls out Windows 8 app updates ahead of time

Getting ahead of the game, Microsoft is now rolling out Windows 8 built-in app updates. This is weeks before the October 26 official unveiling of Windows 8.

In a blog post today, the software giant listed all of the additions and updates that Windows 8 built-in apps will be getting. Skydrive, mail, messaging, photos, maps, news, travel, weather, and more will get new features and performance and reliability improvements.

Here's more from Microsoft's president of Windows Steven Sinofsky:

We're super excited to be approaching general availability (GA) of Windows 8 and Windows RT. With thousands of new … Read more

Few seem to heed Tim Cook's directions on mapping apps

For developers, getting noticed is more than half the battle.

At a time when the big operating systems have more than half a million apps available for sale, developers have an increasingly hard time breaking through. A whole industry has sprung up around "app discovery," offering developers ways to promote their work to an audience that likely wouldn't find them otherwise.

In such an environment, recommendations are essential. And it's hard to imagine a more valuable recommendation than a personal endorsement from the CEO of the world's most valuable technology company.

But less than a … Read more

Microsoft takes a stake in Klout and adds its data to Bing

Microsoft is making a "strategic investment" of an undisclosed size in social-media vendor Klout, company officials announced on its Bing Community blog.

On Bing, Microsoft is going to display Klout data -- including a person's Klout score and topics they are "influential" about -- on the new Bing Sidebar pane for those users who can and want to see this information. And on Klout, "highlights from Bing will begin surfacing in the 'moments' section of some people's Klout profiles," a Microsoft spokesperson said.

This new partnership is related to Microsoft's ongoing … Read more

Google would like to snag Yahoo search deal from Microsoft

The search saga between Google and Yahoo may not be over after all.

Under a search-ad partnership proposed in 2008, Yahoo would have placed Google ads on some Yahoo search results, and the companies would have shared resulting revenue. However, Google was forced to scuttle the deal later that year in the face of growing antitrust concerns, allowing Microsoft to swoop in and strike a deal with Yahoo.

But apparently, Yahoo, which dumped Google as its default search technology provider in 2004, hasn't been far from the Web giant's thoughts.

During a launch event for Google's Nexus … Read more

Microsoft gives Yahoo top billing in ad rebranding

As reported earlier today on SearchEngineLand.com, Microsoft seems to have inadvertently tipped its plan to rename Microsoft Advertising to the "Yahoo Bing Network" and to rebrand its own online ads as "Bing Ads."

Update (September 10): Microsoft officials sent overnight the following clarification:" Microsoft Advertising is not changing branding. What was called the 'Search Alliance' is now the Yahoo Bing Network. AdCenter is being rebranded to Bing Ads." (AdCenter is Microsoft's search-based advertising tool.)

When I checked around 7 p.m. PT on September 9, Microsoft was displaying posts, a new Twitter account … Read more

So I put Google and Bing in the ring: Guess who won?

Googling seems to be such an automatic act -- like shaving, or weeping at humanity's myopia -- that I am not even conscious of what my searches are.

So along comes Microsoft's search machine with a large-hearted promotion, asking you to truly think about whether it could be better than the great Lord Google.

Called Bing It On, the promotion asks you to offer up a search and then look at a side-by-side comparison of the results, in which the identities of the search engines are hidden. Then you vote on which results are better. You do this … Read more

Search your Facebook photos with Bing

Bing continues to tap into Facebook's vast traffic by adding a way for users to search their archive of Facebook photos.

The search engine said the new feature, announced today, will let users search their photos and their friends' photos.

The tool scours the more than 300 million photos uploaded to Facebook each day and brings up results based on photo captions. The photo-viewing will follow Facebook's privacy standards, according to Bing's blog post.

"Your Facebook friends will only be able to see the photos you have made viewable, and you will only see photos your … Read more

Bing Windows 8 app brings tiled goodness to your search results

Microsoft's new Bing app brings a simple but visually slick approach to searching the Web.

The app made its entrance on Wednesday as one of the few new features to pop up in the Windows 8 RTM (release-to-manufacturing), the same version that will officially greet consumers on October 26.

The new operating system already offers Internet Explorer, both as a Windows 8 app and a traditional desktop program. As a third option, Bing is a dedicated app that acts as a portal to Microsoft's own search engine.

Launching the app opens Bing's home page with the search … Read more

Microsoft's Bing team turns to apps for mobile and gaming

Microsoft's Online Services Division (OSD) is the home of the Bing search platform, MSN and Microsoft advertising. But it's also where a couple of hundred developers are working full-time on writing apps for Windows 8 tablets, Windows Phones and the Xbox gaming console.

This team -- known as AppEx (Application Experiences) -- is the one that built the news, travel, finance, weather, sports and maps applications that have shipped as part of the Windows 8 test builds. They're using primarily (but not exclusively) HTML5 and JavaScipt to build showcase apps that may (but don't have to) … Read more