Bing Announces Location Focus for Search, "Bing Bar"

Posted 12/03/2009 at 5:55am | by Paul Lilly

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In a long winded blog post, Microsoft on Wednesday announced a few enhancements to its Bing search decision engine, the first of which is a greater emphasis on location. Using Bing's map view, you can now zoom, pan, and move around with "seamless exploration of your physical world."

Sound a bit like Google Earth? So should Bing's new Streetside imagery, which allows you to "get down to the street level and walk down the streets to find that good parking lot or figure out exactly where the door to the club is located." Taking a dig at the competition, the Bing team points out that their Streetside imagery "isn't just a bunch of pictures stitched together," and instead a "physical environment on top of which we can provide an experience that connects to information from across the web."

Microsoft also unveiled the new "Bing Bar." The toolbar works with Internet Explorer and Firefox, and comes with a Search Assistant (start typing in the search box and you'll receive suggested searches, image suggestions, and your search history), Browse Plus, which automatically delivers breaking news and can also be configured to watch specific stocks and sports news, and a No-Fail Cash Detector, which flashes an icon when an item qualifies for Bing Cashback.

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