Bing bets farm on social search

Bing

Bing hopes Facebook integration will increase the relevance of its search results.

In a press release entitled Bing Now Helps You Make Decisions With Your Facebook Friends, and elaborated on in the Bing blog article Facebook Friends Now Fueling Faster Decisions on Bing, Microsoft's 'decision engine' Bing now has the world's largest social network welded to it.

Search engines have come under fire of late due to their inability to provide relevant search results. Google in particular has been hit by spam, which Marco Arment said makes using the search engine like "asking a question in a crowded flea market of hungry, desperate, sleazy salesmen who all claim to have the answer to every question you ask,” despite none having any actual information for you. Google's subsequent attempts to tighten its algorithms have been mixed, sometimes downranking sites like BMJ, PR Newswire and Cult of Mac.

Microsoft's attempt to stay relevant instead rely on the world's biggest social network. After connecting to Facebook (which at the time of writing can only be done if your territory in Bing was set to United States), a number of changes to search results are apparent. Liked articles (and liked content within sites) are flagged, and liked sites are surfaced rather than prioritisation depending on more global algorithms. Additionally, 'conversational search' provides dialogue within results, such as sharing shopping lists and assisting with travel.

Whether Facebook integration will boost Bing's fortunes remains to be seen; while it's chipping away at Google's market-share, Bing still only accounts for 30 per cent of US searches, compared to Google's 65 per cent.

Thank you for reading 5 articles this month* Join now for unlimited access

Enjoy your first month for just £1 / $1 / €1

*Read 5 free articles per month without a subscription

Join now for unlimited access

Try first month for just £1 / $1 / €1

The Creative Bloq team is made up of a group of design fans, and has changed and evolved since Creative Bloq began back in 2012. The current website team consists of eight full-time members of staff: Editor Georgia Coggan, Deputy Editor Rosie Hilder, Ecommerce Editor Beren Neale, Senior News Editor Daniel Piper, Editor, Digital Art and 3D Ian Dean, Tech Reviews Editor Erlingur Einarsson and Ecommerce Writer Beth Nicholls and Staff Writer Natalie Fear, as well as a roster of freelancers from around the world. The 3D World and ImagineFX magazine teams also pitch in, ensuring that content from 3D World and ImagineFX is represented on Creative Bloq.