Bada Bing: Bing Outshines Google With New Design and Features
Web Design
When you think of a search engine, you’re most likely thinking of the master of web, Google. Google, with its own social network known as Google+, has all the fixings any web surfer could ever want or need and it’s been that way for years.
On the other side of arena is Bing, the rival search engine that’s raising the stakes to become a power player in the online world, especially when it comes to social media and search. Both Google and Bing have confirmed that social media plays a huge role in how a website is ranked, but Microsoft is looking into making their search engine as social as possible. Here are the latest add-ins by Bing that will make any marketer’s heart sing.
Last Wednesday, Bing announced in a company blog post that it has added another Pinterest feature to its image search. Now users can search for a particular topic (let’s say pumpkin spice), and a projection of different images show up. While Bing has been allowing users to directly ‘pin’ from its interface onto users’ Pinterest boards, it’s placed cutting-edge algorithms to aggregate Pinterest image collections that can be found on the right side of its normal results. A Major breakthrough for marketers who’ve been wondering how they can improve their SEO and bring new traffic to their website and Pinterest site. Take a look:
When you click through on Bing, this is what you’ll see:
Pinterest Integration:
NOTE: The most important takeaway is the “View on Pinterest” which creates the full-circle. If you’re wondering how Bing got the rights to do this, there aren’t copywriting issues involved. Bing just indexes content and is crawling Pinterest like it normally does. It should be noted that Bing’s new image change is called “Image Collections” not “Pinterest Boards,” which leads us to believe Bing might be looking into integrating with other image social sites such as Instagram and Facebook.
Why Bing is Getting an Applause
Bing is a superstar right now. It’s now one of the only search engines that still provides keyword search data. And just last month, Bing revealed some big new changes, including its new social sidebar feature, which Microsoft went ahead and combined with Snapshot, that can be found on the far right of their web search engine interface that gathers all relevant social media updates found on Facebook, Twitter, and more.
Users can log into their Facebook accounts through Bing and can interact and talk to their friends, asking questions and providing answers to relevant content that they’ve been searching on Bing. Bing goes out and searches through Twitter to find profiles and tweets mentioning user searches and displays that information on the right side as well.
Social Sidebar:
Other Bing features in the works include Page Zero, which helps users find better search results by showing links and facts before they even press Enter. Pole Position, a section that can be seen at the top the page when Bing is really confident it can answer a searcher’s query directly. And Bing’s newly developed responsive design is intended to fit every screen out there.
Page Zero Feature:
Pole Position Feature:
Bing Responsive Design:
What Marketers Can Do
Bing is offering up some goodies for both users and marketers that’s making big impressions. While Google reigns supreme in the area of web search, Bing is definitely reminding users how far they’ve come since their launch in 2009 and their capabilities as a true contender in the next several months. What marketers can do right now to take advantage of Bing’s new features is to:
- Get visual: keep pinning, add in keywords to Pinterest boards and find out key phrases to use for new board ideas.
- Get active: ask for likes and recommendations from friends, colleagues, and customers. Have them write a review on Facebook or Twitter. Place social plugins on your website and blog.
It looks like this search engine could be the underdog that packs a punch in the near future. Stay tuned for more updates.
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