Microsoft gives Bing stronger search filter option
Bing's smart motion preview lets you hover over video search results and play a clip, but not if your network administrator plans to use Microsoft's new tweak.
(Credit: Screenshot by Tom Krazit/CNET)Microsoft has tweaked the search filters on its new Bing search engine following criticism that its smart motion video feature allowed Web surfers to watch porn without visiting adult Web sites.
The company announced the change in a blog post Thursday, as it also defended its approach to adult content in search results as a "more conservative approach than others in the industry." Bing does not show any video results for queries such as "porn" until the searcher disables a safe search filter, but following that click searchers can watch a small clip of adult content in the browser while still on the Bing site.
Bing's video preview feature--known as smart motion preview--is one of the selling points Microsoft has used to try to get momentum behind its revamped search engine. But the company acknowledged that corporate customers had expressed a desire to enforce stronger search filters within their networks, and so it is giving those network administrators as well as individual users on a home network the ability to add a string of text to Bing queries that automatically enforces the strictest search settings regardless of the user's individual setting.
This is "a short-term workaround" that will be finalized later, according to Microsoft, but no further details were provided. A Microsoft representative was looking into the details of how home users could implement this on their own networks.
Tom Krazit writes about the ever-expanding world of Internet search, including Google, Yahoo, online advertising, and portals, as well as the evolution of mobile computing. He has written about traditional PC companies, chip manufacturers, and mobile computers, spending the last three years covering Apple. E-mail Tom. 
I believe the word you were looking for is "administrator"
Isn't there some sort of spell checker that points these things out before you post?
I think it makes you a jerk.
it really doesn't make him a jerk actually, who turns out to be a jerk is actually you. this is not a site where someone is posting a blog out of his/her parents basement, this is a prominent news site. Cnet news....freakin news.com. mistakes like these should not be tolerated...in the same regard, I doubt you would overlook a spelling mistake in a magazine or news paper, it gives the effect to the reader like the writer doesn't care of his work or readers.
it makes me wonder what the hell some bloggers are using to post their blogs, I mean would it be so hard to use MSFT word which spellcheck by default? or even windows live writer which is easy to link it to your blog so you can publish your blog posting right from the writer itself and it does come with spellcheck/grammer-check by default and its free. I mean, what the hell was he using to post his blog?.....seriously, you need to take pride in your work. it would be nice if you actually thank the guy who saw the mistake, there's nothing wrong with a little humility.
Amen
+1
Applicable to all anal rententive subsequent posts. There are bigger problems in the world that need more attention.
Bing makes it easier for finding porn by not only giving the child the option to turn off the filtering but also by providing the link to the search filter change dialogue and then enabling playback of porn clips without ever going to the site.
Like I posted in another article, that's the cyber equivalent of "are you sure your parents aren't home?".
At least with the other search engines, you have to actively go search for the filter dialogue, turn it off, then repeat the search query.
Do an image or video search on google and you get the exact same link at the top.
Text of the link is "Moderate SafeSearch is on" in google.
tm_anon -- are you so blinded by your MS hate that you will say just about anything negative that comes to your mind? Facts, etc. be damned??
Just did a Google search for the same terms I checked Bing with, no extra link popping up from it.
The "Moderate SafeSearch is on" link is there no matter what terms you put in, nothing pops up as it does with Bing and it still navigates you away from the page in order to turn it on or off, just like it always has.
Maybe you're not getting it, Bing actually adds a new link specifically for you to turn off the filtering process. It's not a permalink like Google has, it's a specific pop-up style link that only appears when there's content "missing" from your search.
Maybe you're just too blinded from your anti-me campaign that you're not quite getting that MS did a very bad thing here. The basic search is fine, it's actually pretty fast. The problem comes in when MS puts the option to turn off the search filter directly on the page as a very obvious link that only appears when there is content missing and then they play the video direct from the search results, nothing shows in the browsers history because of that.
Get over yourself, I'm not spreading FUD, I'm telling the truth. Go check it.
I had written a much longer, more involved response but CNet took it down, not sure why since it involved nothing but the truth.
1. Safe search / filtering is the default for both Bing and Google.
2. It can be turned off for both Bing and Google.
Claiming anything else is simply FUD. If you stand by what you're saying - post the exact search term you're using and let us all see the difference.
... and that must be true, as all the Linux and Apple people are still chanting the 'MS is an evil monopoly' mantra.
Well, living in Amsterdam (and that's in Europe by the way, for some of our readers), personally I don't really care what names people associate with either an MS search engine, or weed. Apparently, back in the olden days, to 'googlinge' meant the same as the modern day 'felching', in some Norse dialects. Now that could make an interesting icon-of-the-day on a certain website...
8-)
I will make a decision in a couple of weeks whether to stick with Bing, but so far I like it.
According to this blogged metric, Bing may have surpassed Yahoo Search, primarily by reducing the market leader's share: http://bit.ly/bCLLy
- by tommyg562000 June 5, 2009 3:36 PM PDT
- Why are all these reporters looking at porn? That's really the first thing they did when Bing went live? Maybe all you who are complaining about this need to get some help with your porn addiction!
- Reply to this comment
-
(24 Comments)