Microsoft overhauls Bing with social media results

PanARMENIAN.Net - Microsoft has overhauled its Bing search engine to better factor in results from social media web sites including Facebook.

According to the software company, the update is the most significant since it launched Bing three years ago and is designed as a response to the web's "evolving fabric".

"Increasingly, the web is about much more than simply finding information by navigating a topically organized graph of links," said Qi Lu, president of Microsoft's Online Services Division. "We're evolving search in a way that recognizes new user paradigms like the growth of the social graph."

He said that one of the most significant developments centers on the way in which Bing brings in social networking to help users to take action based on the advice of friends through the new "sidebar" feature. When searching for a particular subject, a list of Facebook friends who might know about that topic is displayed in a light-grey sidebar on the right-side panel of the results page.

"So if you query 'Hawaii', user models in the network look at public information in your profile such as where your friends live or have lived, what they've liked on Facebook, and photos - and turn up a list of people who likely have information relevant to your query," said Sandy Wong, principal development lead for Bing.

"You'll still see search results for Hawaii within the traditional Web search results. But now you'll also be able to consider the advice of your friends who may know something about Hawaii."

Users can also post a question and include web links to get input from the friends Bing suggests, and friends can respond on Facebook or Bing, offering recommendations to help with the search.

The sidebar also displays the names of experts and enthusiasts who have blogged or tweeted about topics related to one's search. Users can click on the person’s name and read their blog or follow them on Twitter.

"People are using the Web to do things in the real world, and that's a big change from where things were a decade ago," said Bing senior director Stefan Weitz. "And so the 10 blue links that search has been predicated on for the last decade no longer makes sense. Simply put, that's not how you get things done."

The next release of Bing will begin rolling out in the coming weeks and will be broadly available in the U.S. in early June.