Bing-Facebook Double Tag Teams Today
In partnership with Facebook, Bing proudly announces the deployment of new social features in service to their users in the US. They’ve been open to customers’ feedback on their way to improving searches that are useful to customers. Those customers found out about the partnership between Microsoft Bing and Facebook a few weeks back, when the companies jointly announced their plans for a more social search. Since then, improvements have already been made towards ensuring a controlled search experience, hoping to make customers feel safe.
Users showed dissatisfaction when they did not see their friends in their search list. It is with this thrust that the search engine improved features for a “similarly powerful experience inside Bing.” You can now see your friends when you search.
“Assuming you have selected to share information with your friends inside Facebook, you will show up in profile searches in Bing, even if you have selected not to have profile information show up in public search engines. This is similar behavior to the way Facebook works. It’s important to note that you will not show up in web searches on major search engines including Bing, just in Facebook Profile Searches within Bing conducted by your friends or friends of friends,” said Bing Group Program Manager Paul Yiu.
Moreover, they have lowered the search age requirement from 18 yrs old to 13 yrs. Users would want to see their friends below 18 years old as well. The feature can be turned on and off at the user’s preference.
“We believe these changes will make the experience better for customers, allowing them to bring their friends with them into the Bing experience, making search more social, more personal and more useful,” Yiu added.
Mobile is also another area of opportunity for both Microsoft and Facebook. On the heels of Bing’s integrated social search roll out is Facebook’s press event, which will have a mobile announcement later on today.
In other news, Yahoo’s undergoing a major social overhaul, and is having the bulk of its search now powered by Bing. This is Microsoft’s partnership strategy towards making gains on Google’s web and app dominance, especially as it pertains to search and search advertising.
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