Bing Watch . . . Just Bing It!

The “Doing Engine” adds 165TB of new imagery to Bing Maps as the largest satellite release

The “Doing Engine” releases more imagery that was taken from satellite or aircraft over North America, South America, Africa, Australia, Europe, and Asia.  Total newly added maps almost equal to 38 million square kilometers.

Global Ortho Project was launched about one year ago and had accomplished significant works and hit about 85% of total works.  For the latest release, Bing Imagery Technologies completed aerial photography over America and considered as 100% done.  The team plans to complete photography over Europe within the next few months and be ready before the New Year of 2013.

(Image: Bing Maps)

Bing encourages users to do something (activities) during summer of 2012 by launching a sub-domain site called the Bing Summer of Doing and will giveaway weekly prizes

Bing launched a new sub-domain site to motivate its users to find something interested to do during summer of 2012.  The new site is called the Bing Summer of Doing, or bing.com/doing. This new site will be updated on a daily basis and displaying several activities to encourage users to learn something new.  There will be several groups of activities on weekly basis, including do-it-yourself (DIY), eating, and others

On the launch day, it was related to DIY-ing week.  The first day set of keywords were “beekeeping for beginners” which shows several links on how to raising honey bees, beekeeping business, beekeeping equipment, etc.

Users can follow Bing’s Twitter account at #summerofdoing and Bing’s Facebook account. 

Bing will giveaway weekly prizes for users who click on the daily keyword search.

(Image: the Bing Summer of Doing)

Stay the course: Bing maintained its share of search market in May with 15.4%, while Google increased slightly to 66.7% share

According to monthly search market data published by comScore qSearch, Bing's share of search market in May 2012 in America remained at a steady level with 15.4%, compared to April 2012 which was at 15.4% share.

Yahoo’s share of search market in May dropped to 13.4% share, compared to April which was at 13.5% share (or, a drop of 0.1%).

The Search Alliance Bing and Yahoo combined a total of 28.8% share in May, compared to April’s share of 28.9% share.

Google’s share of search market increased slightly to 66.7% in May, compared to April which was at 66.5% share (or, an increase of 0.2%).

Data source: comScore

Bing Search results to show Qwikis web stuffs which combine images, videos, maps, infographics and voices

Bing partners with Qwiki.com a New York City-based company to enhance the search results with a new web app format. The web app combines images, videos, maps, infographics and voices.  Qwiki is a well-funded startup with about $11 million in total funding so far.  The combo of Qwikis and Bing will help users to find information and stuffs faster and help them to make better decision.

During the beta version, Qwikis will show up at the same line as Wikipedia search results.  Bing team noted that the new feature will be integrated with other search results in the next few months.

(Screenshot: Bing Search results page, keyword search "los angeles")

Bing Rewards offers new sweepstakes for a chance to win one of the 25 prizes of 12-months of Hulu Plus or one prize of the Spider Man Xbox 360 bundle, submission ends July 16, 2012

Bing Rewards announced two new sweepstakes as members must submit their entries by July 16.  To celebrate the summer blockbuster movie, the team offers members a chance to win an Xbox game console with hand-free Kinect controller, 12-month free membership for the Xbox Live, and the Amazing Spider-Man video game bundle.  In order to have a chance to win the Xbox 360 console pack with Amazing Spider-Man bundle, each submission requires 20 credits.

The second prize is a 12 month subscription for Hulu Plus.  There will be 25 winners for this prize. Hulu Plus allows users to watch several top current and re-run TV shows, such as Modern Family, The Office, Gossip Girl, and others.  Each submission requires 25 credits and ends July 16, 2012.

(Image: Bing Rewards)

Bing on Xbox: voice search is coming to 12 markets including Australia, Austria, Brazil, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Spain and Switzerland

At Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) 2012 Press Conference at USC Galen Center (University of Southern California), former Bing executive and now Chief Marketing Officer of the Interactive Entertainment Division, Yusuf Mehdi presented several new features of the Xbox gaming console with Kinect hand-free controller.  One of those new features was Bing voice search on Xbox.  During the presentation Mehdi spoke few commands in Spanish language.

The voice feature has been available for users in America, Canada, and Britain (English-speaking countries) in the first week of December 2011.  As of today’s announcement, Bing team has confirmed that there will be 12 additional markets for Bing voice search on Xbox, including Australia, Austria, Brazil, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Spain and Switzerland.

(Image: Bing team)