Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer was on hand and on stage at RIM’s annual Blackberry World event. Microsoft’s main man announced what Bing called a “new alliance” between the two companies to help their “joint customers” make better decisions.
Starting with the new BlackBerry Playbook, RIM’s products will use Bing products as the preferred search provider, both for the search app and in the browser. Bing will also be the the default map application on all devices shipped domestically and internationally. As part of the deal, Bing apps will also have preferred placement and promotion within the BlackBerry App World carousel.
Less than 48 hours after news of the killing of Osama bin Laden, related searches are still trending on Google, Yahoo, and Bing. Details of bin Laden’s death, news coverage, and even conspiracy theories have dominated on the search engines. Here’s a roundup.
Google Trends
Geronimo — the code name of the Navy SEAL operation that killed bin Laden — was the top search on Google earlier today, and remains on the list at fourth as if this writing. Jon Stewart checked in on the hot searches at number 13, likely related to his “To Kill a Mockingturd” coverage from last night.
If you’re noticing something different on Bing Shopping, you’re right. With continued emphasis on providing users with tools to make more informed decisions, the Bing Team calls their update a “brand new experience” to help users shop. The new landing page for Bing Shopping combines various content to help lessen search time and improve the shopping experience.
The page now shows lists of what people look for most, current trends, gift ideas and articles for trending topics. There are lists by categories, brands and popular products. There’s even an area where you can connect with your Facebook account to see friends’ birthdays, so you know who you have to buy for, in case you forgot.
Bing has announced expanded options for earning credits from its Bing Rewards Program. Bing Rewards is now integrated directly into Bing Web search. This opens it up to people using the latest versions of the Firefox, Chrome, and Safari browsers.
Previously, the only way to receive credits was by using the Bing Bar, a toolbar only available for Internet Explorer. Existing members who were using IE with the Bing bar may still choose that option, or simply sign into Bing when surfing.
Today Bing Maps announced their new iOS app called Photosynth, which enables you to snap full-circle, 360 degree panoramic images just using your point-and-click iPhone camera.
Simply point your camera up, down, left and right, and the app will automatically line-up the next shot. Photosynth will then automatically process, view and store the finished panoramas right onto the device.
You can then share your panoramas as images on Facebook, view them as interactive panoramas on Photosynth.net, or publish them to Bing Maps (using the app) to be used on Bing local business listings.
Business owners, stake your claim! Bing has released the Bing Business Portal into the wild. Bing Business Portal is a new service from Bing to help business owners create and control their presence online.
While it is still in beta, business owners can now search for and claim their business listing. Once claimed, business owners can control their listing, adding such information like logos, photos, business hours, accepted forms of payment, parking availability, social media links and more.
The popularity of Google Doodles has not been overlooked by Bing and Ask, both engines are buying low costing paid search traffic for Yuri Gagarin figuring the people who click thru may stay and use Bing News or Ask.com.
The arbitrage brings back memories of when search sites would actively buy traffic from other small and less expensive engines and directories to resell for much higher numbers. Now it appears that Bing and Ask are making a smart play for a term that will not cost too much, but for the day will have a lot of traffic from users that want more information on Yuri Gargarin.
With the tag line “Touch and Decide,” Bing has released an incredible new search app for iPad. Available for free in the App Store, Bing for iPad was designed from the ground-up for the larger iPad screen to deliver a visually rich experience.
Naturally, Bing for iPad launches with a new homepage image with hotspots, just like Bing.com. However the app offers a distinctively different search experience than going to Bing.com in the pre-installed Safari browser.
At the bottom of the screen, the App Bar features large, tiled, up-to-date content areas. The App Bar is used to exploring various vertical search properties, such as Movies, News, Maps, Trends, Finance and more.
Both Google and Bing have been making changes as of recent, each in their own way. Most noticeably, Google has been experimenting with Twitter data and, more recently, its +1 feature. Google +1 adds tagging of search results for sharing those results to contacts in your Google Account. Bing has their partnership with Facebook, integrating Likes into results and has also been leveraging and integrating social sites directly into search results.
Google’s Take on Social
By releasing +1, Google has created their own feature that, at the moment, appears to mimic Facebook’s Like button. This appears to be more of a business move by Google, promoting their own Google accounts and profile service. Google’s dashboard and toolbar also seem to promote this end.
Bing’s homepage may be getting a new look — and the new layout is a bit reminiscent of Google’s current homepage.
Rather than having the vertical links to Images, Videos, etc. at left on top of their background picture, in this test Bing has moved those links to the top of the screen and arranged them horizontally (but thankfully doesn’t follow Google’s lead with a “More” pulldown).
“We’re always experimenting with new user experiences. These shots looks like ‘flights’ that we run with small percentages of users to gauge how successful/unsuccessful our ideas are,” said Bing Director Stefan Weitz.
