Users can type an English phrase and receive its Klingon translation in the proper alphabet, and for those times when you need a Klingon translation, you can reverse the process and enter the alien phrases, in turn getting the English translation. The feature is available via the Web version of Bing, and via the Bing Translator app for Windows Phone 8 with the update Microsoft rolled out.

Microsoft went into detail on how the translation process project was performed over on MSDN, offering an explanation in both English and another in Klingon, for those fluent among us. The project was done in partnership with the Klingon Language Institute, and was particularly difficult because of the lack of substantial texts in the language, let alone transcribed texts.

That is where the fan community came in, providing feedback and corrections. The translation engine was trained with an initial bought of transcribed Klingon texts using the Microsoft Translator Hub. Over time, the combination of these two things resulted in more accurate results as the project progressed and was refined, and finally the finished project, which is now available.

You can get a translation in either Latin script or in its native plqaD script, but Microsoft advises that you must manually select the language rather than relying on Auto-Detect. If the translation option isn’t enough for you, there’s also a widget that can be added to websites, allowing visitors to translate the pages into the Star Trek language. And just for the record, this is how you say SlashGear in Klingon:

SOURCE: Bing

After you log in with your Microsoft account and connect your Facebook account to Bing, you will discover that you can view comments on Facebook posts in the sidebar inside of the search engine. From there, you can comment and “like” posts without having to visit the Facebook homepage. Whenever you search for something, Bing will automatically bring up any relevant Facebook posts from friends, whether or not they’re recent.

The social sidebar that’s included in Bing has been a feature for a while now, allowing users to connect their Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, or Klout accounts to receive relevant posts from friends on social networks regarding search queries that you make to Bing. Google has a similar sidebar, known as Knowledge Graph, that brings up any third-party relevant info during a search.

This is just another example of the close relationship between Microsoft and Facebook. The social network’s new Graph Search tool, for example, includes results from Bing search on top of Facebook’s own results, so the relationship and integration between the two services goes both ways.

VIA: PC World

SOURCE: Microsoft Bing Blog

All of the logos seemed flattened out, matching the design scheme that Microsoft is currently going with. The approach that Microsoft was trying to go for was to create products that feature similar looking logos, but are still identified as their own brand. Simmons, whose company has been working with Microsoft for quite a while, says that while coming up with Microsoft’s new look, they were influenced by Nike’s design. He says,

“We thought about Nike. When you experience the Nike brand in whatever form you may experience it, there’s always a Nikeness right… you can certainly see it without the logo.”

The focal point of this rebranding has to do with the consumers. According to Shum and Simmons, “people, reach, and choice” were the prime reasons for this change. They both want to align design, marketing, product, and branding all into one “harmonious” package. They wanted to stray away from Microsoft being just a big business with products, and be more of a business that represents the consumers that use its products.

In the presentation, Simmons and Shum provided sketches of what some of the new logos may be. In the video above, you can see the concept logo that they have for Bing. These new logo rebrands are all part of a process Microsoft calls “re-imagining” itself. Simmons says that the entire project is a huge risk, especially since they’re rebranding products used by millions of people, but that you can’t be innovative without taking a chance.

[via The Verge]

The Bing Apps are comprised of News, Weather, Sports, Finance, Maps, and Travel. All six offer up content relevant to its category, having been created specifically for Windows 8, meaning they’re fast and work well. Each app is getting its own update that brings a variety of improvements and features unique to the app, such as the new ability to customize the News app to follow certain stories and topics you’re interested in. There’s also added support for RSS and reading offline.

New Maps features includes better driving, walking, and transit directions, the ability to save places you frequent as a start screen pin or favorite, and up-to-the-minute updates for things like construction and accidents. The Finance app, on the other hand, didn’t see much in the way of changes, gaining a refreshed watchlist, interactive charts that can be customized, and US stock updates in real time.

The Sports app gains 29 new sports leagues after updating, making for a total of 65 leagues across a variety of sports, including football, soccer, basketball, baseball, and more. The Travel app also got a bit of an update, gaining new content from Frommer’s, Lonely Planet, and Fodor’s. Flights can be booked from within the app, which is pretty convenient. And finally, there’s the Weather app, which now offers dynamic animated maps that show the weather into the future. Users can choose by cloud cover, temperature, and more.

[via Bing]

German independent testing lab AV-Test conducted an 18-month study, and gathered up 40 million website provided by seven different search engines. 10 million websites came from Google and Bing each, with 13 million coming from Russian search engine Yandex, and the rest coming from Blekko, Faroo, Teoma, and Baidu.

Surprisingly, though, out of the 40 million sites, AV-Test only found 5,000 websites that were riddled with malware. Yandex had the most percentage of malware websites in its search results, while Bing returned 1,285 malicious results out of its 10 million websites. However, Google only returned a mere 272 malicious results — a lot less than Bing.

Of course, the chances of coming across a malware-infested website in either Google or Bing is slim to none, so whether or not you use Bing or Google, it’s always important to remember to know what you’re clicking on and make sure it’s not a website that’s infested with malicious code. Web browsers will usually warn you if you come across such a website, but it’s always good to have a little common sense anyway.

[via PC Mag]

The video shows two Windows Phones side-by-side, with one running the current Bing app and one running the alleged prototype app. You can see its improvements in real time, with one of the most obvious ones being the reduction in latency when the user makes voice requests. Obviously, this hasn’t been confirmed by Microsoft.

In addition to the latency improvements, there is also a decrease in the rate of word errors, and voice requests that are made in a noisy situation, such as a room where other devices are producing noise, are handled better than with the current app. You can check all this out yourself in the video below.

Near the end of the video, you’ll hear someone said to be Eric Rudder of the Chief Technical Strategy Office. According to Rudder, the prototype app offers a 12-percent to 15-percent increase in word error accuracy, but goes on to say that there is another potential 10-percent to 15-percent that hasn’t been implemented. There’s no word on when these improvements will make their way to the public.

[via MSFT Kitchen]

The latest version of Bing Desktop allows users to connect to their Facebook account via the application. Once connected, the desktop app will populate with content from the user’s Facebook feed. Viewing options includes friends’ statuses, page posts, and comments. This is offered as a simple way to check out what’s going on without firing up your browser.

Another new feature is the ability to customize how Bing Desktop integrates into your computer’s desktop, with three new options being added. The first option is a minimize-to-Windows Taskbar option, which is self-explanatory. The second lets the user create a keyboard shortcut to pull up the search box without using the mouse. And the third option is for minimizing to the system tray.

Last but not least are the personalization features, which have been improved for greater control. Users can now easily set whether Bing Desktop will run as a start-up process, as well as configuring their search history and choosing the Bing.com image that will be applied as the desktop background. You can grab the update from Bing.com; it’s available in nine countries, including the US, UK, and Canada.

[via Bing]

With the updated resolution, users can now zoom in to Top of the World imagery to a 13x level, at which point further zooming will pull up high-resolution satellite images. More detail is also visible in certain locations now thanks to cloud reduction, which removes clouds from locations where they are often present, revealing the details below them.

The base satellite imagery was provided by TerraColor, while bathymetric imagery has also been added, which is basically underwater topography. Because of this, oceans no longer look like endless blue swatches of water, but instead have coloring to indicate depths and mounds of the ocean floor. This provides quite a bit more detail than was previously available, which you can see represented in the image above.

Finally, there has been a release of additional Global Ortho imagergy to the tune of a tad over 203,000 square kilometers. This amounts to a total of 11,001,500 square kilometers, of which there is 100-percent coverage of the United States and 90-percent of Western Europe. Global Ortho imagery is high-resolution orthophotos that were taken “straight down” from an airplane.

[via Bing]

Not surprisingly, Google came in at number one with a total of 114.7 billion searches, totaling a whopping 65.2-percent of the market share. Baidu, a Chinese search engine, held steady in second place with 8.2-percent of the market share and 14.5 billion searches. Yahoo! came in at a modest third place with 4.9-percent market share and 8.6 billion.

Then, in a surprising turn of events, Russia’s Yandex came in number four, with 2.8-percent of the market share and 4.8 billion searches. This nudged Bing out of its fourth-place slot by a relatively small amount. Microsoft’s search engine is ranked at 2.5-percent of the market share with 4.4 billion searches.

Although Yandex is not a common name in much of the world, it is a popular search engine in Russian-speaking locations, responsible for over 60-percent of searches performed in Russia. Its ranking is likely established for the same reason Baidu’s is – the large population to which it caters. The thing to keep in mind, however, is that while Microsoft’s search engine score is determined by multiple services/properties, Yandex is just Yandex – a Russian search engine that stands on its own, with no outlier software, that still beat Bing.

[via Search Engine Watch]

Bing is out to take on the masses of Valentine’s Day lovers with Local Scout on your Windows Phone 8 device first and foremost. Local Scout makes it simple to find all the best nearby food and drink locations right from the palm of your hand while m.bing.com does instant searches near you for similar results. Bing offers up their “snapshot” results for restaurant reviews from Yelp as well as restaurant booking straight from Open Table.

Bing Maps is ready and willing at this point in history to take you wherever you need to go with the GPS on your smartphone or through any mobile web browser with point to point directions that include traffic conditions on-the-go. Bing Shopping has you covered for gifts with millions of listings of products from every single corner of the consumer universe. Bing’s social sidebar also provides you help with gifts with expert reviews from all over the web – and your Facebook friends if they’re also connected to the network.

Let us know if you’re ready to use Bing this holiday or if you’re planning on using a competing search engine to make sure you’re stacked up and ready for the big love-bound day of heart-throbbing goodness. The heart you’re seeing above is not a direct result of Bing’s search engine results as the search bar implies – not directly, anyway – instead it’s a poll conducted by Bing that shows Trustworthiness as the most important quality a partner can have in general. Microsoft is showing that it’s not afraid to say that Google isn’t a partner they’d choose to go home with.

[via Bing]

The five new apps are comprised of Bing Finance, Maps and Dictionary for Excel, as well as Image Search, News Search, and Dictionary for Word. Going through them one-by-one, Bing Maps pictured above allows Excel users to map data on a visual map, providing such data as location names and tools for navigating within the map, such as zoom and panning. Road view, birds eye view, and map view are all available.

Then there’s the Bing Finance app for Excel, which is currently in beta mode. The Finance app aids in generating financial portfolios within Excel, providing real-time financial data, such as stock prices, within the program. There’s the Dictionary app for both Word and Excel, which is about what you’d expect in a dictionary. Spellings and definitions are provided.

Finally, there’s News search and Image search for Word. News search, like the name suggests, allows one to search for news and videos within a Word document, particularly handy if you’re writing a report or research paper. Then there’s Image search, which allows for users to find images from within a Word document, then easily embed them in the document via an “insert” button.

[via Bing]

Bing Tags is easy to use; after connecting with Facebook, users can tag their friends in various search results. For example, let’s say friend John Smith is featured in a recently published article. One of John’s friends can Bing Tag him on the link. Once tagged, he’ll receive a notification to approve it, and assuming he does, it will then be publicly available for the digital world.

Likewise, users can tag themselves in search results, allowing them to select a variety that best represent them in whatever way they wish to be represented. For example, an artist can tag himself in a variety of search results that feature his work, while a writer can tag herself in links to her published work. Social networking profiles, online resumes, and more can all be tagged.

This follows close on the heels of Microsoft’s January 17 announcement that Facebook content has been further integrated into Bing Search. By connecting to the search engine with Facebook, users can see relevant Facebook content from friends, including statuses, images, and tags, based on the search term used.

[via Bing]

According to Microsoft, Bing users will now see five times more Facebook content on the search engine than before. Content from the social network includes status updates, pictures, links, and comments that pertain to the search term used. For example, one searching for “Tokyo” will see Facebook content from friends relevant to the city.

In order for the Facebook content to appear on Bing search results, users with a Facebook account must authorize the Bing app. After performing a search on Bing, click “Connect with Facebook” on the right side of the screen. Users will bet taken to Facebook with a permissions request from Bing. After accepting it, the content will appear alongside search.

Says Microsoft, “Bing is the only search engine where you can find relevant search results along with the people who can help you make a decision – so you can spend more time doing and less time searching.” In addition to Facebook content, Bing also displays content from users on other social networks, including Foursquare and Twitter.

[via Multivu]

“I think the main thing is about when people share something on Facebook, we want to give them not only the ability to broadcast something out but also change their privacy settings later and take the content down” Zuckerberg explained. “That requires incredibly quick updating … We need that content to be gone immediately … You need infrastructure that can support that and that takes a lot of commitment from the partner.”

Zuckerberg’s concern appears to be sudden changes – such as where people realize they want to alter the granular privacy settings on photos or other content – and the possibility that public searching could continue to turn up results that users might not want included. Facebook has been criticized in the past for confusing privacy controls as well as taking perceived liberties with user-data, and this reluctance to compromise on indexing accuracy appears to be a move by the social site to avoid any complaints further down the line that relate to speed of indexing.

“Google has a system that works really well for them about how they treat information across their company,” Zuckerberg said, “and I think that our system was different in ways that people share information and want to give them flexibility after the fact – that was the biggest stumbling block.”

Despite the Facebook CEO’s explanations, insiders within the company claim that there were no renewed negotiations between it and Google prior to Graph Search’s development. Instead, he is supposedly referring to earlier talks, which broke down when the two companies disagreed over exporting and ownership of personal data.

There’s more on Facebook Graph Search in our full run-down of the service.

We heard from one Jefferies analyst that Apple might begin preliminary production on the iPhone 5S in March, while specs for the rumored Sony Xperia Tablet Z leaked out (we’re told to expect a full HD display, among other things). A ChangeWave study tells us that iPhone demand is down though the device still dominates the charts, and Acura revealed its 2015 NSX concept car at NAIAS 2013 today. We got an up close look at the rumored BlackBerry Z10 handset in a new video, and we learned that there might be Java-based iterations of the Red October cyberespionage attacks, which would explain why the Department of Homeland Security has been so insistent in its recommendation to stop using the software.

Tesla announced today that it will open 25 new stores this year, while 2K Games and Irrational delivered the PC requirements for the incoming BioShock Infinite. A US District Court has dismissed the case against Aaron Swartz after his tragic death, and it would appear that Samsung has a new phone called the Galaxy Pocket Plus on the way. Disney Infinity was announced today, and it’s looking to take a bite out of Skylanders’ massive audience, while United has become the first international US-based airline to offer WiFi on its flights.

AT&T is offering Nexus 7 owners a $100 credit on their bill if they sign up for a data plan with it, and NASA is telling us that Curiosity may have found its first potential rock sample target on the surface of Mars. 10 more games have moved through Steam Greenlight, Call of Duty Online has kicked off alpha testing in China, and finally tonight, Simple has brought its online banking app to Android. That does it for tonight’s Evening Wrap-Up, we hope you enjoy the rest of your night folks!

Zuckerberg already described the difference between Facebook’s Graph Search and traditional web search, noting that the two are completely different as far as what kind of results appear, but to cover all bases, Facebook is partnering up with Microsoft’s Bing, which will provide web search results for search queries that aren’t in Graph Search.

Essentially, the Bing partnership will allow Facebook to slightly jump into the web search realm without fully committing itself. So, for queries about the local weather, users will get relevant results in Graph Search thanks to Bing. Zuckerberg says he doesn’t see Facebook as an exclusive web search tool for users, but the company wants to “provide good search results in Graph Search.”

The beta version of Graph Search is rolling out today, and it’ll start slow. Then, as more info is indexed, the feature will roll out more widely and quickly. As of right now, there’s no word on how slowly or quickly the beta will roll out — execs say that it all depends how well the beta program is going. For now, there don’t seem to be any plans for an API, but Zuckerberg didn’t completely rule it out.

If you want the official NORAD Santa tracking, you’ll have to go to Microsoft Bing. Over on Bing, you will be able to keep track of Santa on Christmas Eve and I would expect it to be pretty much the same style and layout that Google had for the last five years. Just because NORAD signed up with Bing as the official Santa tracking destination doesn’t mean Google won’t be keeping tabs on Santa.

Google has announced that its Google Maps engineers have built a new route algorithm to chart Santa’s journey around the world Christmas Eve. Google says that you’ll be able to follow Santa using Google Maps and Google Earth starting at 2 AM Pacific standard Time on Christmas Eve. Google even built a few new tools to make tracking Santa easier.

Google has a new Chrome extension and a new Android app is available to help you track Santa on the go from a smartphone or tablets. You’ll also be able to get updates on exactly where Santa is on Google +, Facebook, and Twitter.

With this brand spanking new app up on the Google Play app store today you’ll be able to interact with users working with iOS, Android, or a web browser of any kind. When you send out your notification and start off on your trip, you’ll be adding to a unique website in a browser that says how long it’ll be before you get to the location you say you’re going.

An important point is that this app never actually says where you are – it only says how many minutes (or hours, or years) it’ll be before you get there. An example can be seen below – you’ll also see information (if the case calls for it) about the location. Here we’ve got Perkins which also includes a phone number, website, street view, and actual link to the GPS location so other users can navigate there as well.

This app uses Microsoft’s Bing Maps – that’s Nokia’s maps as well, mind you. ALSO heed this, per the developers of this app: “Since continued use of GPS running in the background can dramatically decrease battery life, Twist utilizes proprietary GPS and cell tower data algorithms to minimize battery drain.” Great idea!

“Twist lets family, friends and colleagues know when you will arrive—and it lets you know when they will arrive. Twist merges the best features of your iPhone into a single easy-to-use mobile application. Eliminate the uncertain wait times by calculating and sharing your arrival time with Twist’s simple, social and accurate ETAs. Stop waiting and guessing and Start Twisting” – Twist

Users can add messages to the Twist page (or navigation, whatever you want to call it), this set of information being live until everyone has actually gotten to the location. More often than not, that just means the first person who set the Twist up in the first place. And it’s all up and ready to roll for free – and rather fun to use, too!

Now you’ve got to decide if you want to tell everyone that this app actually exists. Let us know what you think about this app right now – as quick as you can!

The Social Results sidebar pulls information from the user’s friends’ Facebook statuses, tweets, Fourquare activity, Klout, and more. For example, searching for a specific restaurant will pull up activity from friends who shared content about that restaurant. The content could be a link to an article, a status about the restaurant’s quality, or a Fourquare checking, for example.

The update is specifically for Safari for iPad/iPad mini, and is designed to display whether the device is in landscape or portrait mode. Users who want to benefit from the service need to sign in to their Facebook profile by clicking “Sign In” on Bing and authorizing the connection. If you’re not seeing the social results sidebar right now, be patient; Microsoft says the update is rolling out over the course of a few days.

This comes after the announcement yesterday that Bing Desktop had been updated to version 1.1, bringing with it support for more languages, and all versions of Windows starting with XP. Using Bing Desktop, users can set their wallpaper to the latest Bing desktop image, which will change daily. The search bar allows users to pull up and view summaries of the latest top headlines, video, images, and more.

[via Bing]

Back in May, Google made the decision to move to a new model where all merchants pay either per-click or per-transaction in order to be included in Google Shopping results. This means that when you search for a product, instead of getting the most helpful and relevant results, you’re actually just seeing paid ads.

The word “Scroogled” most likely comes from combining “screwed” and “Google” together, and Microsoft says that “when you limit choices and rank them by payment, consumers get Scroogled.” To help shoppers, Microsoft has offered up their own way of shopping online and finding the best price, by using Bing for searching for gifts.

Microsoft is laying down strong commitments to its approach to shopping results in order to send a stronger message to Google. Among the commitments is a promise to not “switch to pay-to-rank to allow some shopping search results to appear higher than others.” While Microsoft may hold onto these promises for now, we’re not sure if they can keep this up forever.

It’s called “Get Your Google Back,” and the big G has even launched a new website with the sole purpose of getting its products on your Windows 8 machine. The process seems painlessly simple – once you’ve got Windows 8 installed on your computer, open up Internet Explorer and direct it to getyourgoogleback.com. Once you’re there, you’ll be prompted to install the Google search app for Windows 8.

The website also has a button to make Google Chrome your default browser, and clicking that button will begin the install of Google’s much-loved Chrome. The whole process is laid out in the handy little video posted below. Google gets bonus points for setting the video to a strikingly good cover of Jackson 5′s I Want You Back.

And there you have it – just a few simple steps and you can have Google search and Chrome tiles right there on your Start screen. Are you a new Windows 8 user who will be following Google’s advice, or are you going for a different search/browser combo? Let us know in the comments below, and be sure to check out our story timeline for more on Windows 8!

Even AOL, which is teetering on the brink when it comes to search market share, made the tiniest of gains, rising one-tenth of a percentage point to 1.8%. Microsoft’s Bing, which is Google’s largest competitor, held steady between August and September 15.9%, so while it isn’t a gain, it’s certainly better than a loss. Sadly, the same can’t be said for Yahoo, which was the only engine comScore is showing a loss for.

Between August and September, Yahoo’s market share actually fell 0.6 points, dipping from 12.8% to 12.2%. It isn’t the biggest loss – not by a longshot – but the struggling Yahoo needs all the help it can get in the search department. comScore says that right around 16.53 billion searches were made in September, which is down about 4% from August’s 17.04 billion. Almost all of the search engines that were tracked in comScore’s report suffered a decline as a result of that drop – with Yahoo in particular getting hit the hardest – but interestingly, Ask was the only one to make gains in explicit search queries, gaining 3% over August’s results.

So, even though Ask is a long way away from being able to challenge Google for search share (or Bing for that matter), September was a pretty good month for it. In any case, comScore’s report indicates that Google doesn’t have to worry about having its title taken away any time soon, though the fact that Bing is holding steady while Yahoo is losing a small amount of market share has to be encouraging for Microsoft. Be sure to have a look at our story timeline below for more reports from comScore!

There’s also the new rumor that claims the iPhone 5 will have LTE capabilities in multiple regions around the world. Some crucial Samsung components may be missing from the first batch of iPhone 5s, and today a backplate for the oft-rumored iPad Mini surfaced in new images. Amazon has released a new update for its Silk browser, and in it, the company makes Bing the default search engine for the browser. Verizon has said that it will have a BlackBerry 10 device on offer as soon as the new OS launches, and today a set of specs for the rumored HTC One X+ were spotted on Twitter.

The HTC One X+ wasn’t the only HTC device to suffer a leak today, as we also got some new information about the Accord. European carriers have said that the Lumia 920 will go one sale in November, and later on in the day we heard that it will arrive at AT&T on November 2. Dijit NextGuide has landed on the iPad and we go hands-on, while Fox is saying that it will begin releasing digital copies of its movies before releasing them on Blu-ray and DVD. Everything Everywhere is gearing up for a 4G LTE launch event on September 11, and Amazon has dispelled rumors that it is planning to enter the smartphone market. Madden NFL 13 has sold more than 1.5 million copies in its first week, and last but not least, Google’s latest doodle celebrates the anniversary of the first Star Trek episode.

That does it for the news, but we also have a few original posts for you to check out. Don Reisinger tells you why you don’t need to buy a new TV now, and we talk to the creator Everest Bands to see how his Kickstarter campaign is going. Don’t forget to enter our latest giveaway either – SlashGear’s Beach Buggy Blitz Tegra 3 Tablet Giveaway is now open, and trust us when we say that you don’t want to miss out on this. That does it for tonight’s Evening Wrap-Up, so go out and enjoy the weekend!

That’s a change that’s likely to make some waves, considering that Google used to be the default search engine for the Kindle Fire. Ubergizmo said that they didn’t know if users could change the default search engine, but in the time since their hands-on went live, Ars Technica has confirmed with Amazon that changing the default is possible. Bing comes as the default for Silk, Amazon says, but users will have the option of switching to Google or Yahoo if they wish.

So, it isn’t that big of a deal, just an annoyance at first for those who prefer Google. Why did Amazon make the switch? It’s probably because Microsoft paid them to make Bing the default browser. The amount Microsoft paid likely isn’t paltry either – the company is serious about pulling people away from Google and getting them to use Bing, so money probably isn’t an issue for the big M. Microsoft, of course, is declining to comment on the deal with Amazon, but you can bet that some money changed hands in order to get Bing as the featured search engine in Silk.

Microsoft has had a difficult time getting users to leave Google behind and switch to Bing, so it’s no surprise that the company is aggressively trying to get Bing onto as many devices as it can. We’ve seen Bing become a little more prevalent since its launch, but it still has a very long way to go before it can catch up with Google. Perhaps this new team up with Amazon will help with that? We’ll see soon enough. Stay tuned.

Microsoft has announced a new feature for Bing that’s actually a very good idea. Bing will now allow you to tag up to five Facebook friends on the search sidebar and share a search you make to get direct input from friends. The question will be posted to your Facebook Timeline automatically and the friends you tag will be notified.

Microsoft has offered several examples of how the feature can be used, and these are examples I think a lot of people can relate to. You could ask friends who have traveled to a vacation spot you plan to visit what they think of the hotel or a beach. You could ask your foodie friends if they have tried a specific recipe, or you can invite friends to a specific location for a get-together using the feature.

This new feature is a small tweak to the social sidebar that Microsoft added to Bing a few months ago. Is this feature interesting to you? I’m not sure we will ever see a similar feature from Google considering how hard the search giant is pushing Google+. Watch the video below to see more details on the new feature for yourself.

[via CNET]

The 165 TB of new data comes from satellite imagery data and Global Ortho photography. Before this new 165 TB update, the existing aerial footprint for Bing Maps was only 129 TB total. The aerial photography is high-resolution NADIR or straight-down orthophotos taken by satellite or aircraft.

The new release features coverage of North America, South America, Africa, Australia, Europe, and Asia. The total landmass covered in the update is nearly 38,000,000 km². Bing notes that as of today the Global Ortho project is 85% acquired and published. Bing also has 100% coverage with aerial photography over the United States and expects to have 100% coverage of Europe this fall.

Microsoft has been rumored to be purchasing the social networking tool Yammer, is currently pushing for a new bit of software and/or hardware for its Xbox lineup, and has been putting a lot of work into their search engine Bing as of late. Microsoft is also getting very close to releasing their final version of Windows 8 for public consumption. It could also be the release event or a major update for their upcoming Xbox SmartGlass system.

We’ll let you know what’s up as soon as the news drops on Monday. Until then, feel free to leave a comment below letting us know that you think Los Angeles will hold for Microsoft in the very near future. Also feel free to hit up SlashGear’s Twitter account @SlashGear to let the whole world know with a tweet!

The search results also add links to other trusted sources such as Wikipedia, Freebase, and Qwiki. Undoubtedly, this is Microsoft’s attempt to match Google in the search space. In May, Google announced a new context-sensitive information search called knowledge graph that put more details on the right-hand side of the search page for specific things users search for.

Microsoft took a different tact by integrating its Britannica results in line with its other search results. I can see this being useful, particularly if you’re searching for details on a person or place. This is also the first the partnership for Encyclopaedia Britannica since it ended its print version in March.

The reason So.cl exists, from what we’ve seen thus far, is to promote Bing search results in as visually appealing a manner as possible. What it does is to have you using Bing entirely exclusively to share whatever it is you’ve got to share, focusing on grabbing you what Bing suggests is the best source for your news tip. You can also read news feeds, of course, and you’ve got your own profile and can make your own posts – and there are Video Parties, too!

The Video Party is essentially what you’d be doing at a real party if you didn’t have the ability to physically speak with one another and had a TV in front of you with YouTube – only and it uses YouTube videos to do it, too. And you can chat by typing only – for now. The main idea here though isn’t to interact with your friends and colleagues like you have been doing on Facebook, Google+, and the like, it’s to use Bing.

Much in the same way you look for a topic of interest right now with whatever search engine you like to use most, click in to a link that brings you what you want, and share with your friends, So.cl cuts down the process. Now you’ve only got to search for what you like and hit the Share button from the story itself – but wait, you say, you can do that already in Google?

The whole So.cl platform is essentially a reformatting of what we currently do to share topics of interest with one another. Have a peek at the first official launch video to get a better idea of Microsoft’s aims with the platform, and sign up at So.cl soon!

Inside this next generation Bing, you’ll be able to search through a variety of social networks right from one console, this feature appearing to be most useful for those looking for up to the minute news as well as restaurant reviews and ideas for their next outing to a new city. What does Twitter have to say about New Orleans at the moment? More than likely Bing would tell you that there’s no lack of tech-minded citizens as they exit out from this week’s big event CTIA 2012.

What Bing will do though, and what might very well stop it from being successful in this very visibly Google-toned internet world, is include Google+ search results. This might be a good strategy in the long run should that social network turn out to be a bust a few years down the line, but right this minute it might have Google users turned completely off the idea of making any big switches to this alternate engine, even if it does have social networking results in every other respect.

Have a peek at the Bing timeline below to see how far Microsoft has come with this search engine ecosystem since its relatively recent creation and birth here in the last few years:

Featured: So, CTIA has officially winded down and now we head to other news to talk about in our featured articles. Like this – Microsoft madness Bing buoyant amid browser brouhaha. And, our Don Reisinger takes a look at another trending Microsoft story – Why I support Microsoft’s $99 Xbox 360 and why you should too. Check it out; it’s a good read.

IE, Android, & Nvidia: As we wrap up the wrap-up, let’s take a look at some of the other stories that were of the most interest today – Rumor: Microsoft bringing Internet Explorer to Xbox 360. That would be quite a move for a console that has historically been very closed off when it comes to online connectivity. In other news, Google is planning a Game Center competitor for Android. And finally, for all you computer enthusiasts out there, Nvidia GeForce GTX 670 review round-up.

The Mozilla argument plays well with those who never quite gave up on the idea of Microsoft being an evil, industry-dominating mastermind hellbent on control at any cost. As the Firefox maker puts it, Microsoft has purposefully blocked off all access to the “Classic” desktop in Windows RT, allowing only its own browser to run there, while rivals are left to make Metro-style apps instead.

Microsoft’s retort – presumed, since the company won’t comment yet on Mozilla’s openness firestorm – is that Windows RT machines run to a new paradigm, educated by iPad-style consumer friendliness, and that simply porting a desktop app across would bring with it all manner of hangups and legacy headaches. Better, surely, to come up with a new version that makes the most of Metro’s groovy new interface and the various speed and efficiency technologies present in Windows RT.

Indeed, dragging over software intended to be used with a keyboard and mouse and then “embiggening” the UI to accommodate fat fingertips is part of the reason Microsoft has struggled for so long with its tablet competitiveness. With commentators long criticising the firm for its janky slate strategy, it’s difficult to look too harshly on it sticking to its guns with what will, for the consumer, mean more focused and device-appropriate apps.

It’s ironic, then, that over in search Microsoft is being lauded for its openness. The refreshed Bing, revealed today, follows Google’s lead but does it in a way that’s the very epitome of inclusiveness. Log into Facebook, Twitter, Google+ (or any of several other services) and you’ll see not only sharing tools arrive in your Bing interface but interaction ones too.

So, Bing will allow you to identify which of your friends – across all the networks you’ve logged into – you see as potential experts in your current search topic, and easily pester them with questions. It’ll also flag up possible third-party sources it believes to have expert knowledge itself.

Admittedly, Microsoft couldn’t help but slot in a sly dig at Google along the way. “Both Bing and Google were starting to jam social signals into the Web results, and it turns out it wasn’t that relevant and it was overloading users with clutter,” Microsoft VP and Bing exec Derrick Connell said of the changes, while design manager Robert Dietz chastised “the noise and the extraneous information” found in most existing search tools. But even so, the company has cleverly sidestepped the big criticism leveled at Google with its own search changes: that it was doing it solely to shoulder out its rivals and promote its own Google+ social network.

Microsoft’s system preaches inclusiveness; Google’s prioritizes Google+. If your whole life is on Google+ then that’s probably not an issue; however, very few people could probably say that today. Facebook and Twitter are still dominant forces in social, and Microsoft’s willingness to integrate them into its search tools gives them equal billing.

There are flip-sides to each. You could argue that third-party app makers have all the Windows 8 flexibility they want: if they want to create desktop apps, they can do it in the x86 versions which are frankly likely to be far bigger sellers than Windows RT machines, for the next few years at the very least. And while reviews, sharing and reservations have all now been pulled into Bing from a broad gamut of sources, their presence on the search results page could, you might argue, mean less traffic to the sites themselves.

It’s not easy being big, or open, or innovative. Google discovered that to its cost a few months back, with its privacy policy amalgamation. What it expected to be a PR win – making privacy policies easier to read – turned out to open a hornets nest of controversy and help kickstart antitrust investigations. Microsoft, though, appears to have scored at least one win today with its Bing approach, but with a sting in the tablet tail.

The Bing UI now features three columns, with the main showing search results: Microsoft said that in blind testing, 43-percent of people preferred Bing’s search results and 28-percent preferred those from Google. In the center there’s the Snapshot column, with relevant information and services related to the main search – including maps, restaurant reservations and reviews – based on user-patterns of common tasks. Microsoft has roped in third-party service providers like Open Table, FanSnap and others.

Finally, on the right is the Sidebar for social integration; after logging in through Facebook, users can tag friends they believe may be knowledgable on each subject, and see others that Bing believes suitable based on their “likes”, their listed interests, and photos they’ve shared.

“For example, if you’re searching for diving spots in Costa Rica, with the new Bing, you may discover that one of your Facebook friends knows a great spot, based on photos from their last trip to Costa Rica that they shared on Facebook. Or you might find a friend who lives in Costa Rica based on his or her Facebook profile. You and your friends can only see information you could already see about each other on Facebook” Microsoft

Furthermore, Bing will also suggest external experts from Twitter, Foursquare, Quora, LinkedIn, Google+ and Blogger who might also be able to help. The sidebar will also hold the Activity feed, a record of all ongoing and previous queries.

“Both Bing and Google were starting to jam social signals into the Web results, and it turns out it wasn’t that relevant and it was overloading users with clutter,” Derrick Connell, Corporate Vice President in Microsoft’s Bing team argues. “With this release, we’ve taken most of that out of the Web results and given users the traditional search results that they love and expect.”

The new Bing will roll out to US users in the next few days, and you can find it out when it’s available for you by registering at bing.com/new. Meanwhile, Microsoft is working on a mobile version – m.bing.com - with touch optimization, that will arrive in the coming weeks.

This serves as a great example of how technologies developed in the lab have transferred over to real world applications, originating from Microsoft Research to enhance one of Microsoft’s own products, Bing aerial maps. The research was led by Neel Joshi, Larry Zitnick, and Richard Szeliski.

Joshi had long been interested in exploring image deblurring and his idea was to get information about how an image became distorted and then applying the correct math based on the data in order to recover the photo. With most mobile phone cameras being equipped with various sensors, such as accelerometers and gyroscopes, that information can be much more easily collected.

However, it wasn’t until Microsoft’s Bing Imagery Technology team approached Joshi that he was about to see his research applied in real use. The Bing team’s Global Ortho program used several airplanes equipped with cameras and special computing equipment and sensors that indicated when certain images might be blurry. They would then have to send the planes up again to cover these areas.

With the technology that Joshi’s team developed, that same data could be used to salvage the images through their deblurring method instead of having to retake the shots. The software algorithms once meant for taking everyday pictures did have to be adjusted for the must larger aerial photography and scale with gigabytes of pixels. And so, Bing has been able to offer clearer aerial images for users, although its limited to only the US and Europe for now.

[via iStartedSomething]

As long as you have a data connection – and we’re guessing you will have, if you’re searching the internet – you can hit the microphone button next to the search box and speak your search query. Just as on Android devices, Google’s servers promise to quickly crunch your gibberish chatter and help you avoid punching out letters on the on-screen keyboard, though in our experience accuracy can vary significantly.

Finally, there’s local search, which – if you allow the app to use your location – can pull up results based on proximity. So, if you want a restaurant or an ATM, those at the nearest location to you can be recommended first.

The app supports English, Spanish, French, Italian and German, and is a free download for Windows Phone 7.5 Mango users. Question is, do users of Microsoft’s OS really want Google on their device, or are they content with Bing?

Although a rise in market share is usually something to celebrate, Google may be less than keen to shout about its premiere position in the segment. The company has come under renewed interest recently over its integration of Google+ data into search results, a move it calls “Search plus Your World” but which others have argued is a misuse of its dominance to boost usage of its social network.

Twitter was outspoken in its criticism of the new system, claiming to be concerned that it would make relevant tweets harder to find. Meanwhile, the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) announced earlier this week that it was considering filing a complaint with the US FTC over Google’s changes, pointing to the fact that users “cannot opt out of having their information found through Google search.”

That threat has since been acted on, with EPIC urging the Trade Commission to investigate Google. “Google’s business practices raise concerns related to both competition and the implementation of the Commission’s consent order” the group wrote. It’s demands echo those of the Senate Judiciary antitrust subcommittee, which put in its own call for an investigation back in December.

Google has previously argued that, while it has the leading share in search, it is not exhibiting antitrust behaviors of the sort that caused Microsoft problems a decade ago. The FTC is yet to comment on whether it will be undertaking an investigation.

Microsoft’s Bing search engine was Google’s primary rival in this deal, and the the company’s long-living Internet Explorer is still the top Internet browser on the web, by user count, although Google Chrome is ever so climbing nearer and nearer to take the spot away, potentially in the near future. Yahoo was apparently in the bidding competition as well, but prices were too high for the company, who has its own internal troubles to deal with at the very moment.

Last year, Google paid over $100 million to Mozilla for a deal in providing the default search engine for Firefox, which expired at the end of November. Though even with the new deal with Google, Mozilla still retains current partnerships with other search providers, including Bing, Yahoo, Yandex, Amazon and eBay. We can say one thing for certain; Google’s hoping for their own sake that Mozilla’s extravagant sum is worth it.

[via AllThingsD]

Students are expected to build communities with similar research goals, and Microsoft is targeting those on social media courses who may lack the collaborative tools that other disciplines have. ”So.cl might even give students the ability to create their own social tool,” Microsoft suggests, “customized for their own community.”

Searches through So.cl are automatically shared for public consumption, allowing others to chime in with their own thoughts. Facebook login is used for authentication, but content isn’t automatically shared to the social network, at least by default.

“The So.cl search experience is powered by Bing; we use the public Bing APIs to display search result data. As students work together, they often look for the same content, and discover new shared interests by sharing results. These results can be web pages, images, or videos found through Bing” Microsoft

Rather than throwing it open to the public, Microsoft is currently limiting So.cl to a select number of schools. That starts with students in information and design schools at the University of Washington, Syracuse University and New York University, with others on the roadmap. However, it’s unclear what plans – if any – there are for general availability.

That will include your recently played games, as well as any apps you’ve used on the Xbox 360. There’ll also be access to the Zune video catalog, with extra detail on the movie, TV show, music or game currently playing through the console.

Microsoft has baked more friend activity support into the WP7 app, including the ability to see which friends are online, which friends have beacons, and see a list of friends who have recently played, in addition to showing achievements and related items. You can invite friends to join you in a game, directly from the smartphone app.

Finally, there’s support for remotely controlling the Xbox 360 from your Windows Phone. In addition to picking a search result and triggering play, buying media and navigating through the console in general there’s play/pause and skip forward/back for video and music.

Xbox LIVE for Windows Phone will be a free download from the Windows Phone Marketplace, and will be available from tomorrow.

Long-time Firefox users may feel a little strange using the different version. The browser’s “Awesome Bar” and search bar has defaulted to Google for years. Mozilla’s contract with Google, which pays the open-source developer a minute amount for every search that originates from the search bar, is up for renewal next month – maybe they’re looking for a little leverage. For Microsoft’s part, they seem thrilled to offer their services: “We are excited to make it even easier for members of the Mozilla Firefox community to use Bing,” said employee Tor Steiner.

If you’re at the intersection of the Bing/Firefox Venn diagram, you’ll be happy to know that Firefox with Bing works with all current themes and add-ons. You can even – gasp! – add Google or other search engines to Firefox with Bing, if you’d like to try your best to destroy the Internet from the comfort of your laptop. Or you could, you know, just use Internet Explorer. Version 9 is actually pretty okay.

[via PC Mag]