Microsoft has taken the covers off of their brand new “social searching” network in collaboration with Bing to bring you results that the whole social web generates. This is not a social network, nor is it a search engine – instead what you’ve got is a way to post news bits for your friends – or whatever you like, but mostly news bits we’re going to go ahead and guess, and Bing will power it all. What makes this engine different from any other news sharing service out there, then?
Google products will be a thing of the past if Microsoft's Bing has anything to say about it - or at least that's what it appears like the software giant is attempting to make a reality with their newest update. In this update as you might well already know, Bing as a search engine will soon be transforming into a social network searching engine in addition to having the abilities it already totes. What's not included, it seems, are results from Google's many services, including what Google's search engine yields first and foremost: the Google+ social network and results from it.
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Happy Thursday, everyone. It's time for the evening wrap-up, where we look back at the most interesting and noteworthy stories of the day, and it's not often we see a story this interesting - NASA finds mysterious "hidden planet." And onto something that falls more on the 'noteworthy' side of things... Facebook Instagram deal faces FTC delay. And now onto something for the gaming fans - Nintendo slashes DSi and DSi XL pricing.
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It’s a strange world: Microsoft has, in the space of a day, been accused of being up to its old tricks in closed-off anti competitiveness, and praised for its openness and flexibility. On the one hand, Mozilla and Google are up in arms about their browsers not having the same flexibility as Internet Explorer does in Windows RT, the version of the upcoming OS Microsoft expects to see on iPad-rivalling tablets and ultraportables. On the other, the Bing refresh is seeing favorable comparisons between it and Google’s contentious Search plus Your World refresh earlier this year.
Microsoft has launched a new version of its Bing search engine, giving it a Windows 8-style UI refresh and integrating social networks so that searchers can factor in the opinions of their friends. ”Research tells us that 90% of people consult with a friend or expert before making a decision” Microsoft said of the Bing changes. “The challenge has been to figure out how to integrate the information you care about with the people who can be most helpful to you in getting stuff done.” Full details after the cut.
The Microsoft Research team had developed a sensor-based photo deblurring method back in 2010, which was designed to use the hardware motion sensors attached to a camera to help remove any motion blur from pictures. Originally meant for consumer photography, that technology is now being applied to deblur much larger photos for Bing's aerial imagery.
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Google has released a new Google Search App for Windows Phone handsets, taking on Microsoft's own Bing search integration on the smartphone platform. Released as a free download in the Windows Phone Marketplace, the new app includes search auto-complete just as on Android, as well as voice search.
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Microsoft's Bing search engine has overtaken Yahoo! search, digital tracker comScore reports, though the gap between it and Google's increasingly noticeable market dominance continues to grow. Bing had 15.1-percent of the core US search market in December 2011, the stat company says, putting it 0.7-percent ahead of Yahoo!'s falling share. However, Google rose 0.5-points to 65.9-percent, responsible for two thirds of the 18.2bn US searches made, and faces calls for FTC investigation for potential antitrust behavior.
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AllThingsD has reported that Google will be on track to pay an impressive $300 million per year to Mozilla, for when Google and Mozilla renewed their search royalty deal, earlier this week. This exorbitant amount of money will allow Google to be the default search engine in Mozilla's Firefox web browser. The deal has apparently climbed to this figure, from previous deals, due to Yahoo and Microsoft's Bing search engine, which have provided ample competition, until now.
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Microsoft has officially unveiled So.cl, and contrary to Facebook-challenger expectations it's a hybrid system pulling together social networking and search and targeted at students. Found at so.cl, the new tool allows "montages of visual web content" including photos, video and text to be constructed and shared for collaborative editing and discussion, as well as "video parties" for real-time conversation.
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Microsoft's December 6 Xbox 360 Dashboard update will also bring a new smartphone app, Xbox LIVE for Windows Phone, turning your handset into a remote control and info terminal. Bing-powered content search will browse through movies, TV shows, music, games and apps, Microsoft's Major Nelson confirms, all from the smartphone screen, as well as showing your own recent activities.
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Here's some strange bedfellows: Mozilla and Microsoft. The developers of the open-source favorite have released "Firefox with Bing", a modified version of Firefox 7 that features Microsoft's branded search engine integrated into its services and interface. Current Firefox users who want to "upgrade" their experience can download a Bing add-on that does the same thing.
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