New things from Microsoft – #4
once again a slow update. but I think this is a better pace for me and what minimal readers I have.
#6 – Bing
What a strange name for such a great search engine. If you haven’t heard of bing, click the link above to get started. Bing is the newest search engine from Microsoft. Bing offers an innovative way of searching the internet for information rather than just webpages. Bing is designed to help you find the information you are looking for without actually having to click possible links only to find that it’s not quite what you wanted. Bing allows you to stay on it’s site while still being able to pull text and information from other websites. What do I mean? Let’s get started.
The first thing you will notice about bing is the the beautiful pictures that are uploaded daily. Each picture is provided with interesting links that tell you more about the picture’s surrounding area, activities, and culture. These links may contain pictures, videos, and websites all using Bing’s search engine.
Let’s initiate a search. I like video games so lets search the term “ign”.
Major sites, like ign, appear with multiple links underneath. If you have ever visited ign’s website, you know that they have multiple pages dedicated to different video game systems. It’s nice to see that you can easily access the xbox 360 page or the nintendo wii page without having to go to ign.com and navigate to it. Another thing you can do is hover over each link and information will appear on the side. Say you are looking for a wiki on something. You can now read a good amount of information on the right side of the link without actually clicking it.
What about images? Let’s search for an upcoming game “Starcraft 2″
Never again will you be clicking next. Bing will continue to generate results as long as you know how to scroll down. Links and sizes are also left out until you hover over an image. This is the way an image search should be. Just pictures. Nothing complicated about that. but that’s not it.
on the left side, you can filter your results by size, layout, color, style, and people. Want a wallpaper image? Bing figures out your desktop space and only shows you images made to fit perfectly for a background. What about photos that are only in black and white or pictures that just has faces? Bing can do it.
Videos:
Video searches are increasing with the introduction of youtube. Now everyone is searching for videos online. Bing has taken it a step further than anyone else. Let’s stick with starcraft 2.
Just like with an image search, you get a clean presentation with a snapshot of each video. The coolest thing is if you hover over each video, it will begin to play. No longer do you have to click a video, wait for it to buffer, find out it isn’t quite what you were looking for and click a new video. Finding videos is as simple as hovering your cursor over each snapshot and watching the preview that begins to play.
Just like with images, you can filter your results. The categories are length, screen type, resolution, and source.
Cool? cool. That’s the extent of this post. Bing also has other great features such as shopping, news, maps, travel, and more. Check it out today at www.bing.com
