Have you been onto Bing recently? If you have then you may have noticed in the bottom right hand corner of the site there’s a call to action for their users, to sign up and support Sports Relief through the use of Bing search. For every 10 searches you make on Bing they will donate 5p to Sport Relief. Now this is a great idea but you do have to be using IE to download the counter and have your searches counted, which is a little restrictive. So if you are an IE user and want to support sports relief in your searches then this is a good way to do it.
Whilst I was looking around I also went in search of Bing’s other latest offerings, and they are quite fun to take a look around. Go here to see what the latest Maps stuff is like: http://www.bing.com/maps/explore Now click on the Maps Apps icon at the bottom of the left side bar!
Some of my favourite apps hidden in there are the Twitter Maps stuff and the PhotoSynth stuff. One thing I was a little concerned about on the Twitter Maps stuff was that Twitter users aren’t always that aware of what their data can be re-used for. Many don’t really relate giving their location when they Tweet to telling people where they are at that moment in time. The Bing app is quite sensitive to this and doesn’t allow the user at this point to ask for Tweets in x area for the last 5 mins which was one of the things I was concerned about. I wouldn’t want this sort of thing being used for bad things!
Other hidden gems within Bing are that when you search for <film> <cinema> <city> for example it will give you the film times for that cinema and the links & in some cases the phone no to call to book without you having to click loads of times. I get so frustrated with Google for their circular cinema stuff! So this was a bonus for me. The aim with Bing here is for usability not page impresssions and click counts. Quick, useful & reliable information was the key according to Paul Stoddart of Microsoft Bing UK.
I do really like Visual Search, particularly the Sports section (Yoga) and the Famous People section (Politicians) as it made it really easy to traverse sets of data… The Geek within me loves to be able to look for patterns and this was great for that. It was interesting to see visually the no of Female MP’s for example and also stuff like Yoga Poses to strengthen certain parts of the body. All really interesting stuff and so simple to use all at the same time. I do think that it’s so much easier to search for certain things visually and certainly I see patterns of data in a very visual way so this just works for me. I just wish there were more options of things to search for in this way!
Anyway after all that do prefer Bing or Google… Now there in lies the question. By default I still go for Google every time, however for some local stuff I will use Bing first, for example finding the cinema times on Friday night for Alice in Wonderland at my local cinema, I went straight to Bing, it was quicker and easier. For standard searches with expected results I still work in the Google way for now but if Bing starts being more simple, efficient and effective then I may well go back there. I’ll certainly be using the Yoga Visual Search, I love that!
Oh and I asked Paul Stoddart Microsoft, UK’s Search Lead a quick question when I caught up with him. I asked what women in tech inspire him. Interestingly he came back immediately with not one but two women that inspired him!
Vanessa Donelley – Who is best known for her work on designing for the web, and is and expert in person focused design.
Jane Tabor – Head of IBM software group, UK and also involved with AbilityNet
About Sarah Lamb
Sarah is the founder of the Girl Geek Dinners & GirlyGeekdom. She is a lover of gadgets, geeky things and sport! Find out more about her on her website.
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