search engine

Bing UK is rolling out search engine improvements, but not what we hoped for

News

By Rich Edmonds, Friday, Jul 13, 2012 at 12:40 pm

We previously looked at Bing UK rolling out the social update we've witnessed being released elsewhere, but it seems as though we're not going to get the full package - at least not the SERP social sidebar anyway. What the Bing UK search engine has received is a slight upgrade with Facebook and Live connectivity, plus a slight design revamp.

With our previous coverage, we received numerous comments from readers who reside in multiple countries, all confirming no social sidebar. Unfortunately, it seems as though this is a limited feature with only the US sporting the whole shabang thus far. But what we all do have after the upgrade is a cleaner interface, larger homepage images, and clearer result pages. Let's hope more is on the way.

If that wasn't enough to heal the social wounds, the Bing team have worked hard on optimisation and under-the-hood improvements. Question is: do you like the sidebar? Would you like to see it included, or is what we have so far enough?

Source: Bing UK

Poynt growth moves past 11 million users

Apps

By George Ponder, Wednesday, Nov 9, 2011 at 2:35 pm

Poynt is a popular search engine for your Windows Phone and the company announced today that the application has surpassed 11 million users and over 2.1 billion interactions globally. The stats represent a collective between the companies Windows Phone, Android, Nokia, Blackberry and iPhone apps. The growth also represents a 158% boost in overall growth in it's user base since March of 2011.

For those not familiar with Poynt, it's a localized search application that points you in the right direction for what your searching for. Search features include quick search tiles for restaurants and businesses, weather information, turn by turn mapping, and live tile support.

Poynt is a free, Mango app and is available in India, Canada, the U.S., Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Australia and the United Kingdom. You can find Poynt here at the Windows Phone Marketplace.

Source: Poynt

Tip: T-Mobile HD7 Mango gets Search Engine option

By Daniel Rubino, Friday, Sep 30, 2011 at 5:23 pm

T-Mobile, for some reason (we bet they signed something), evidently insists on making Google the default search engine for their phones, including the HTC HD7. It's sort of annoying for many because Bing is actually really good at what it does.

In the Mango update for the HD7 for T-Mobile (in the US at least), users have an extra option under the IE9 settings--basically they get to choose Google as default or switch to Bing, which is migh-tee nice of them, no? Of course, you're probably wondering why the rest of us don't have that option to go in reverse, right? Yeah, we don't know either.

But at least for T-Mo users, feel free to switch back to Bing now and take a shower to wash the ick off. Thanks, Prakash G., for the tip and photo!

Truecaller - Review

Apps

By George Ponder, Monday, Jan 17, 2011 at 2:44 am

Need to look up a phone number that's appeared on your Windows Phone caller ID? Truecaller is a Windows Phone 7 app that will let you not only search by keyword but also by phone numbers.

Results are returned listing the name and address (if available), a link to show the location on TrueCaller's map, a link to search the result through Bing, as well as the ability to call the number or add it to a spam listing. While I like the ability to add a number to a spam list, there doesn't appear to be any way to manage such a list.

TrueCaller also gives you access to International numbers. Just tap the Choose Country at the bottom of the main page and select the Country you would like to search. For the most part, TrueCaller ran smoothly but from time to time, the app crashed while conducting the search. It's not enough to drive you crazy and hopefully the next update will fix things.

There isn't a trial version available for TrueCaller but the full version is only $.99. If you need to search phone numbers, TrueCaller is worth a look at.

You can find the Windows Phone 7 app here (opens your Zune desktop) at the Marketplace and follow the break to see a video of TrueCaller in action.

Bing going big: Apple's default search engine?

By Phil Nickinson, Wednesday, Jan 20, 2010 at 7:32 pm

We assume you've heard the whole China-Google-IE6 debacle that's going on, along with the the Apple-Google falling out, so it really comes of no surprise that Microsoft is using this opportunity to edge Bing over Google search.

In fact the rumor du jour is that Apple is seriously considering replacing Google search as their default search engine on the iPhone with Bing. And why not? Bing has turned out to be a big hit for Microsoft, which is no small feat considering the competition.

We expect as Google gets bigger and more powerful this will happen more often. How long do you think Firefox will continue their relationship with Google and Chrome? We've also heard recent inside report that some OEMs are not happy with Google and the Nexus One for obvious reasons.

Sure if Microsoft pulls this off, it's partially because they're a pawn, but a win is a win in business. Plus the better Bing does, the more money Microsoft can sink into fixing our Bing for Mobile 5.0 application, ahem.

[Businessweek via The iPhone Blog]

Bing updates its mobile portal

News

By Phil Nickinson, Friday, Oct 30, 2009 at 7:08 pm

We're still waiting on an update to the native Bing app for Windows Mobile. But in the meantime, the mobile portal has been updated. Here's what's new, according to the Bing blog:

NFL feature – type a team or player and see upcoming games, stats, and scores. While the game is on, you can get real-time updates on the plays. (U.S. only)
Flight status – enter the airline and flight number and get the latest departure and landing times.
Bing for touch devices – Great news for you touch phone owners in the U.S.: we have a new version of Bing just for high-resolution touch devices. We optimized for touch navigation to make the most of your phone, and added a great new Movies feature. Search for Movies in your city, and you’ll see the movies playing nearby, showtimes, overviews, and even trailers and video clips.

Find it all at m.bing.com.

Microsoft's Bing mobile site now active

News

By Phil Nickinson, Monday, Jun 1, 2009 at 9:00 pm

If you're falling in love with Microsoft's new Bing "decision engine" and wanted proper WAP access from your phone, look no further. The m.bing.com site is live, giving you proper mobile-formatted search. We're still expecting a full-on mobile client in the future, most likely to replace the Live Search mobile client.

Via Windows Mobile Training