Microsoft is pushing Bing as a competitor to Google's search as the company brings Facebook and Twitter integration into the browser. There are many more social networks included in the update, which rolls out over the next few weeks, and here are the most important features.
Design
The inclusion of additional social networks means Bing looks different, and features three panels: the usual search results, a social sidebar with shows friends and an "Ask friends" Facebook bar where users can post comments, and a snapshot view that is coming soon. Microsoft has branded these sections "Search Knows," "Friends Know" and "Bing Knows" respectively. The result is all information can be viewed from one window.
Search
Microsoft views search as blue links that point users towards content, and in a study Microsoft found that 34 percent of users found Bing search to be the best in Q1 2012 (28 percent preferred Google, and 38 percent said the services drew). In Q1 2011, 27 percent preferred Bing while 36 percent preferred Google and 38 percent said the services were even in terms of performance.
To highlight the improved search results, Microsoft has removed the left-hand side of the search service, social results from the main search column and is moving contextual results to the main search column. Microsoft is adding the Bing Knows contextual column to bring perspective to search results, Microsoft Vice President Derrick Connell said, along while the social column.
Microsoft has also mimicked Google+: if a friend likes something on Facebook, the like will show up next to the appropriate search.
Bing
Bing Knows, or snapshot, gains data and figures from sites such as Yelp and TripAdvisor, along with maps and price comparisons among other details. "We're interested in how we can tap into all these new Web services that we don't have to own," Microsoft's Bing Director - Stefan Weitz - said to The Verge. Searching for a restaurant, for example, shows the percentage of positive reviews and pulls in Web sites such as UrbanSpoon with an out-of-five stars rating. There's also the option for Directions, Street View, and opening hours. Microsoft wants to keep search results separate from contextual results.
Friends
Friends Know is the pane on the right-hand side of the new Bing and pulls in friends from Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Foursquare, Google Plus and others. It suggests friends "who might know" something about a search query, and offers a field to enter a question which is posted on Facebook. Weitz added when talking to The Verge Microsoft is bringing offline behaviour to the Web.
The sidebar shows friends who like what a user is searching for and if someone has uploaded photos of the place/object/band. The bar can also be minimized to show a column of pictures if users don't want to use the feature.
People Who Know, Activity
An extension of the feature is People Who Know, which targets experts on the query. If the expert is on Twitter, users can reply to or retweet the expert. The results are pulled from Twitter, Blogger and Google Plus. LinkedIn, Foursquare and Quora will be supported soon, though Microsoft hasn't said if the users are hand-picked.
At the bottom is an Activity feature which allows users to share search queries.
Conclusion
The new Bing is a significant upgrade from the service that launched in the summer of 2009. Some features such as Friends Who Know and Bing Knows are genuinely useful, and eliminate the need for users to go to different Web sites to find specific information (unless they want more in-depth information, versus the snapshot shown). However, whether users will switch from Google - the known browser - is a completely different question.
