Technology Slice Blog

Bing Facebook Search - Can search engines effectively move into the social realm? Bing things so. The search engine will soon show which links have been “liked” by the internet surfer’s friends, Microsoft announced today at the Bing Search event in San Francisco, Calif. Since October, Bing has integrated “liked” content from Facebook into its search results in a separate content area that says “Liked by your Facebook friends.” Side note: For us, the special Facebook “like” results didn’t show up all the time—but did show up when we searched “tech” and “social media.” Coming soon, Bing says they’ll show U.S. users which individual page/URLS have been liked by their Facebook friends as a part of the regular search results. Therefore, Facebook “liked” results will no longer be relegated to a special box, rather it will be matriculated into the regular search area. Bing Facebook Search

Microsoft Bing Mobile App - Microsoft unveiled a slew of new mobile, local, travel and social-media features for Bing in an effort to make the search engine more competitive with search-industry leader Google. One new feature aimed at social media fans is the option to rank search results based on what a Bing user's friends have "liked" on Facebook. Microsoft also updated its Bing mobile apps -- for smart phones such as the iPhone, Android and Windows Phone 7 handsets -- to enable users to make reservations using the popular OpenTable service or order takeout using Grubhub, all from within the app. Once checked in to a restaurant using OpenTable, a Bing app user can then "check in" at the restaurant using social-media location services such as Foursquare and Facebook Places. Microsoft Bing Mobile App Another new location-based feature for the Bing apps are reminders that users can set to pop up on their smart phones when Bing recognizes that its near ...