Bing Watch . . . Just Bing It!

Bing’s search alliance partner to cut thousands of jobs starting Q2-2012, mostly in product, research, and marketing divisions

As Yahoo’s search engine has been powered by Bing for about two years, several bad fortunes occurred in the search engine pioneer company.  First, the board fired its CEO Carol Bartz just one day after the summer vacation ended during the Labor Day weekend of 2011.  Then, about two weeks after the hiring of former PayPal president Scott Thompson as the new CEO, Yahoo’s founder Jerry Yang severed its ties with the company in mid-January 2012.

With Thompson as the top executive of the company, a latest report published by one of the very famous technology company insiders, Kara Swisher of All Things D, said that the Silicon Valley-based company will soon be downsizing.  According to Swisher, Yahoo will cut thousands of jobs starting Q2-2012, mostly in product, research, and marketing divisions.  With a total staff of 14,000 employees, about 2,500 people will be affected with the upcoming layoffs.

RT or retweet: Bing Twitter followers will have a chance to win one of the three pairs of Havaianas, only on Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Bing Twitter handle offers its followers a chance to win one of the three pairs of Havaianas on Wednesday, March 28, 2012.  Users must RT or retweet a tweet to others. 

The sweepstakes tweets will open from 9:00 am Pacific Time and will close at 5:00 pm Pacific Time.  As per the official rules, only adults (18+) who live in America can join this sweepstakes.

Here is a sample tweet from @Bing handle:

Get $1.38 USD via Bing Rewards, registered members can redeem 100 credits to receive 60 minutes Skype Credit

Bing Rewards team is trying many tricks to get users to sign-up the reward program such as monthly sweepstakes with great prizes including Xbox & Kinect console and gifts cards from Target store, and others.  To take advantage of Skype brand name and also as the new Bing’s family member, in the next few days, Bing Rewards team will let members to redeem 100 credits to receive 60 minutes Skype Credit.  Based on Skype call rates at 2.3 cents for each minute, 60 minutes Skype Credit will cost about $1.38 USD.  The 60 minutes Skype credit can be used to call friends via landlines or wireless network, and send texting to wireless phones.

Bing team also announced today that new Skype users will be able to download the Bing Bar as they are downloading the Skype software.  The Bing Bar will help users to search faster, connect to Facebook easily, access email quicker, reading news, observing local weather, and checking their Bing Rewards points.  To earn more credits, users must continue to use Bing to conduct searches and occasionally test Bing features.

(Image: Bing)

More juices from last week’s executive firings at Bing’s HQ: troubles started at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, on January 19, 2012

One week after the high-profile firings at Bing’s HQ, AdAge published a list of violations included issues regarding purchase orders for an event called Bing Bar that was held in Park City, Utah.  The event was held in conjunction with the Sundance Film Festival where celebrities and festival-goers from the independent film community met.  The festival was started on January 19, 2012. 

According to AdAge, the list of violations also included an unaccounted payment of $1 million which was paid to Co Collective.  This company was not a preferred vendor.  Another minor violation included issue with Bing’s billing department regarding the use of company money to pay for a first class airline ticket.

(Image: Bing)

New homepage: Bing adds metro-style taskbar at the bottom homepage with several popular topics such as search history, videos, images, and trends

Today’s homepage shows an image that was taken near the Taj Mahal in Agra, India.  At the bottom of the new homepage, it shows several live-tiles using metro-style called “taskbar.”  The “taskbar” includes several popular topics such as search history, videos, images, and trends.  There is a slide arrow to modify “taskbar” which can be expanded or closed. 

Users must have Windows 7 operating system and Internet Explorer 9 to view the new Bing homepage.

(Image: Bing new homepage as of March 22, 2012)

Three out of four top properties in America: Google Sites ranks number one, Microsoft Sites (including Bing and MSN) ranks number two, Yahoo (Bing’s partner) ranks number three, and Facebook (another Bing’s partner) ranks number four

According to the latest web traffic data for the month of February provided by comScore, Bing and its partners has captured three spots out of four spots of the top properties in America.  Google Sites (including Google, YouTube, and others) was the number one ranking with 186.6 million unique visitors in February.

Microsoft Sites (including Bing, MSN, Hotmail, and others) was the number two ranking and captured 174.4 million unique visitors in February.

At number three and four rankings are Bing’s top partners.  Yahoo Sites (Yahoo Mail, Yahoo Search, and others) was the number three ranking with 173.5 million unique visitors.  Facebook.com website was the number four ranking with 158.7 million unique visitors in February.

Click here to download a full version of the top 50 properties in America (.pdf version)

(Table: comScore)

More secret sauces: Bing has been trying to reduce the amount of “G” for garbage from its search results

Early this month Dr. Jan Pedersen published a post explaining the way Bing’s search results showed a combination of ten blue links with images, videos, maps, news and others.  To continue the team’s efforts to show more secret sauces thru “Bing Search Quality Insights” series, another top gun from Bing’s core search team, Dr. Richard Qian (Development Manager), wrote a new post this week.  On it Dr. Qian gave more info on how Bing has been trying to reduce the amount of garbage or junk links and error pages. 

According to Dr. Qian, the team has been trying to remove sites from Bing search results if those sites may contain many types of junk links.  Junk links include dead links (incl. 4xx or 5xx error code), soft 404, and parked domains (see an image showing a parked domain).  In the latest post, Dr. Qian also explained Bing’s effort to reduce junky and empty snippets such as inaccurate description, inappropriate use of encoding and unsuccessful pulling the correct document from sites, and others.

(Image: right, a sample of parked domain site)

Involuntary termination at Bing’s HQ: two distinguished marketers were let go by the "Doing Engine" team due to violation of company policies

According to geekwire.com, two top marketers at Bing’s HQ, Eric Hadley and Sean Carver, had been terminated due to violation of company policies this morning.  Citing a statement obtained from Bing’s HQ, geekwire.com wrote “We can confirm that as the result of an investigation, Eric Hadley and Sean Carver’s employment with Microsoft has been terminated for violation of company policies related to mismanagement of company assets and vendor procurement.” 

Just about one month ago, another involuntary termination at Bing’s HQ occurred to Danielle Tiedt, a former Bing general manager of marketing.  Tiedt is now being hired by Bing’s rival Google to run its YouTube division. 

It looks like there are many unhappy managers in this three-year-old search engine.  A of mid- November 2011, Bing’s top executive, Yusuf Mehdi, had also decided to move to a different division within Microsoft Corporation.

More social signals: Bing search results showed a Twitter’s “TRENDING” box with number of shares and number of hours

Several tech bloggers cited a report that was published two days ago by techie-buzz.com regarding Bing search results.  Apparently Bing has sporadically added more social signals into its search results.  The latest feature that was being added was a Twitter’s “TRENDING” box.  Citing a screenshot provided by techie-buzz.com, the grey color rectangle with Larry the blue bird on the right also showed number of shares within number of hours.  We have been trying to replicate the techie-buzz.com’s finding, but with no luck so far.

(Image: techie-buzz.com)

All about the color blue: Bing Maps enhances several mapping elements such as pushpins, popups, and transit routes info with more blue color to associate with the new Windows 8 logo color

About four weeks ago, Windows team showed off a new logo that was designed by Pentagram.  The new logo is slated to be used for Windows 8 operating system.  The dominant color for the new logo is blue color. 

Two weeks later, Bing Maps delivered a unified map by combining style and design with its partner Nokia.  Nokia’s logo color is also blue.

Today, Bing Maps team announced some enhancements on the popular mapping elements such as pushpins, popups, and transit routes info.  Most of the enhancements are in blue color.   The team also showed some examples before and after the redesigned. 

(Images: top, Windows 8 new logo;  bottom left, the "old" pushpin; bottom right, after the redesigned, the new blue color)

Bing Rewards offers two types of sweepstakes, a pack of Xbox 360 gaming console and five prizes of $500 gift cards from Target, closing on April 2, 2012

There will be at least six lucky winners for Bing Rewards members.  The top prize is a pack of gaming console including an Xbox 360 with Kinect hand-free controller, a 12 month Gold membership, and a free game with a new title "Mass Effect 3." The next five lucky winners will receive a $500 gift card from Target.

Submissions will end on April 2, 2012.  Only Bing Rewards members who are legal residents in America and minimal 13-year-old are eligible to join the sweepstakes.

(Images: Bing team)

Bing upgraded Photosynth app for iPhone to support iOS version 5 while the team is "working to bring Photosynth to [Windows Phone and Android] . . . as soon as we can"

Over 6 million Apple’s iOS users will get an updated version of Photosynth app (version 1.1.3) for running on iPhone 3GS, 4, or 4S, iPad 2, and iPod touch.  Photosynth is a mobile app intended to let users capture panoramas views that was launched in spring of 2011.  It was made famous during the Britain’s Royal Wedding as Photosynth capturing Will and Kate’s first kiss in a full panoramic view.

While the new updated Photosynth app will make iOS users happier as it will also add Twitter support for sharing (requires having iOS version 5), there are also a bunch of unhappy Bing users that are currently using other mobile platforms including Windows Phone and Google Android operating systems.  In a reply to Bing’s users comment on a blog post, Bing team noted that “We’re working to bring Photosynth to additional platforms [Windows Phone and Android] and will share more as soon as we can…”

(Image: right, the 2011 Britain’s Royal Wedding by Photosynth, bottom, Bing blog post comment)

Bing climbed another 0.1% share to 15.3% share of search engine market in America in February 2012, while Yahoo continued to drop to 13.8% share and Google remained strong at 66.4% share

Both Bing and Google experienced some increases in share of search market in America in February 2012, as per the latest data reported by comScore.com.  Bing captured 15.3% share of search market in February, compared to 15.2% share in January, or an increase of 0.1% share.

Bing’s partner Yahoo dropped few more points to 13.8% share in February, compared to 14.1% share in January, or a drop of 0.3% share.

The Search Alliance Bing and Yahoo combo captured 29.1% share in February, compared to 29.3% share in January, or a drop of 0.2% share.

Google remained strong with 66.4% of America’s searches in February, up from 66.2% in January, or an increase of 0.2% share.

(Table: comScore.com)

Bing invites everyone to attend this year’s SXSW in Austin, Texas, as the team will also present two interactive sessions on Saturday, March 10, 2012

Bing team will attend this year’s SXSW Interactive event in Austin, Texas. The event will be held from March 9 to March 18.  To support today’s fast growing technology community, Bing will also setup a Bing Lot to host several startup companies using a local parking lot by offering free foods and drinks.

The team will also present two interactive sessions on Saturday, March 10, 2012.  The first session will be held in the morning from 9:30-10:30am, as Leslie Feinzaig, Bing’s Senior Business Planner, and Jacquelyn Krones, Bing’s Senior Product Manager, will present more insights on the latest Bing’s product and services. 

The second session will be held in the afternoon, 5:00-6:00pm, as Duane Forrester, Bing’s Senior Product Manager, will be on stage with a googler Matt Cutts and the search engine guru Danny Sullivan.

Bing Maps software development kit (SDK) for Windows 8 Metro style apps is now available for free download

One week after the launching of Windows 8 Consumer Preview at the Mobile World Congress, Bing team released a beta version of the Bing Maps software development kit (SDK) to help developers to create and control Metro style apps.  The SDK will also help to sync mapping into the new Windows Metro style apps.  Click here to download version 1.0.20120229.0.

With the new SDK, developers can start building apps using JavaScript and C#, C++, or Visual Basic.  In order to start with creating more maps, developers must meet the following requirements, include a work station that has been installed with the newest operating system Windows 8 Consumer Preview and Visual Studio 11 Beta.

(Image: Bing Maps, Metro style apps showed during Windows 8 launched on February 29, 2012)

The Doing Engine’s secret sauce: Bing opens up its labs and reveals more “Insights” about its algorithms, trends, and people

By representing the Bing team, Dr. Harry Shum wrote a blog post early this morning and introduced a new series called “Bing Search Quality Insights” which will reveal more information about the Doing Engine’s algorithms, trends, and people.  Dr. Shum wrote “…today we are launching a new blog series we’re calling “Bing Search Quality Insights” aimed at giving you deeper insight into the algorithms, trends and people behind Bing. This blog is the first in a series that will take you behind the search box for an up close view into the core of the Bing search engine.”

Soon after Dr. Shum’s post was released, Bing’s top gun Dr. Jan Pedersen with a title as Chief Scientist for Core Search at Bing, published a post “Bing Search Quality Insights: Whole Page Relevance.” On it, Dr. Pedersen noted that Bing has grown up faster and smarter than five years ago.  In the old days, users will be very happy to see search results in ten blue links, but today’s search results will include images, videos, maps, news and others.  With more attention on core search quality, Bing's users will get complete answers when they conducting keyword search.

(Image: Bing search keyword “Tim Tebow”)

Facebook logout page shows Bing search box and photo of the day, a new ad unit from the world’s largest social networking

Each day a ton of Facebook users will login into their accounts and later will logout.  To monetize those exit visitors, Facebook launched a logout page ad unit this week.  In the debut, Facebook has got its longtime partner and investor to place an ad on the logout page.  As confirmed by techcrunch.com on Friday afternoon, Bing is the first promoter to use the logout page ad unit.  techcrunch.com also noted that about 37 million users logout of the social networking every day.

As more advertisers will take advantage of the exit visitors, for now, Facebook’s logout page shows Bing search box with today’s best photo which is almost similar to Bing’s homepage.  The photo for the logout page ad has appeared at Bing’s homepage about one week ago.

(Image: Facebook logout page)

Bing Travel predicts this year’s spring break airfare will go up an average of 4.1% from 2011, while destinations to Sunbelt states and warm areas will go up 16%, and Europe trips will cost additional 11%

Between mid-March to mid-April is usually considered as the spring break time in America.  Bing travel team has been crunching some numbers for this year’s airfare.  Based on the results, the average prices for airline tickets for 2012 will go up 4.1% from 2011.

Bing team also noted that destinations to Sunbelt states and warm areas will go up 16%, as the 2012 average price will be at $486, compared to last year’s price of $406.  Except going to those Sunbelt cities, the price for travelling around America will remain stable compared to last year. 

Trips to Europe will go up 11% with the average price at $907 in 2012, compared to $815 in 2011.