Bing Boards Bring Interest-Specific Content To Search

On Thursday, Microsoft detailed its Bing improvement efforts, which largely concern a variety of testing and experimentation that takes place unannounced, often without anything noticeable happening on the consumer end of things. One experiment, however, will be very visible to those who receive it, and for this reason it has been formally announced: Bing Boards.

Bing Boards is sort of like a one-sided Pinterest where the user consumes content in an area of interest that is supplied by other parties. That could change over time as the testing phase gives away to more data on how the the boards are interacted with and the best method for providing additional content. The experiment is meant to be in addition to search results.

For the time being, Bing Boards will offer content provided by individuals said to be "passionate" about the area of interest displayed, such as bloggers. Microsoft calls this a boutique content offering, something that aims to serve as middle-man between both content offering and social connections with like-minded individuals.

Those who are on the receiving end of the new feature will see it nestled in the middle column on the search page. Unfortunately, due to it being an experiment for the purpose of testing rather than a feature, those who don't get Bing Boards aren't able to opt-in. The feature could change at any point during the refinement process.

As far as the other experiments go, Microsoft didn't detail any of them, only saying that some users might notice little changes over the next few months and that they should just play with whatever appears while it is available. Bing Boards is said to be the first of a handful or more of experiments that focus on both the community and the social aspects of the Internet in general.

SOURCE: Bing