Bing Deals Launches on PC & Mobile, but Where’s the (WP7) App?
Location-based services easily lend themselves to daily deals, and Microsoft’s not one to lose out on this marketing gold mine. On the tail of AT&T and The New York Times adding deals to their respective services, Bing Deals launches as part of the search engine’s decision-making initiative. A very smart move, since they have a strong advantage with their current clientele. For AT&T ShopAlerts and TimesLimited, offer deals for Android and iOS device users that will not only increase revenues from location-based advertising, but will also help participating businesses create customized relationships with their current and prospective clients.
Continuing the location-based trend, Bing announced today the launch of its deals services for Android and iOS devices at m.bing.com, delivering over 200,000 unique offers in over 14,000 cities and towns across the U.S. covering offers from Groupon, Living Social and Restaurant.com among others. In order to give a more personal flavor to the service, Bing teams up with The Dealmap, currently holder of 36 commercial distribution partners that reach more than 85 million monthly visitors and also enables users to display certain deals on the desktop with a green deal icon and check out reviews on products/services/places of interest.
It is strange that Bing specifically mentions the availability of this service for Android and iOS devices, and does not make any reference to Windows Phone 7. After having verified official sources, it seems that Bing has mobile apps for both Android and iPhone, but they are not available in their mobile apps yet. It is recommendable for the search engine to work towards incorporating this into their mobile apps across all available platforms.
A few days ago, Bing announced a similar decision-making service on its blog, this time related to the travel industry – the Price Predictor tool that uses information from ITA’s database. By typing the name of the airport or the route with or without the help of the Autosuggest Flight Prices feature, Bing drops down a list of cheap airline fares. This tools speeds up the decision procedure and offers access to valuable and free information.
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