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  • Klingons to invade Bing translator, bIjeghbe'chugh vaj bIHegh!

    Though some may look down on Star Trek's fictional Klingon language and invoke the infamous phrase uttered by William Shatner -- "Get a life!" -- Microsoft's Bing translation team doesn't see it that way at all. As part of a marketing join-up with Paramount Pictures, the service will be offering translation of the fictional tongue to and from its other 41 languages to support the release of Star Trek Into Darkness. According to the LA Times, the translator was developed with the aid of Klingon-fluent Microsoft engineer Eric Andeen, who said that it's as much about the passion for linguistics as for Star Trek. Originally developed by a language specialist based on a few words ad-libbed in Star Trek: The Motion Picture by 'Scotty' actor James Doohan, Klingon has taken on a life of its own thanks to fans and sites who developed full dictionaries and on-line translators. The Bing project will fire up later today, so why not check it out at the More Coverage link? After all, ghojmeH ta'vaD He tu'be'lu'!

    Steve Dent
    05.14.2013

  • Bing now loads related Facebook posts, lets you share search results from the social sidebar

    Competing with Google for search traffic is no easy task, even for a software giant like Microsoft. Unique features and customization have helped keep Bing afloat, though -- and now, MS is counting on some more comprehensive Facebook integration to boost appeal. Beginning today, the site's "Social Results" sidebar will be pulling in a bit more Facebook content, including posts from your friends that the tool deems relevant to the search at hand. You can also pub directly to your timeline from within the tool, sharing search results with your online buds. It's hardly a revolutionary refresh, but if you haven't yet managed to annoy your friends with posts about your favorite Spotify tracks or those shoes you just purchased online, Bing's now ready to step in by making your search habits public, too.

    Zach Honig
    05.10.2013

  • Microsoft updates Bing apps for Windows 8 with RSS news, offline reading and more

    Microsoft sees Windows 8 as a prime delivery vehicle for its online services, so it's rather important that the company polishes the Bing apps at the heart of its experience. Accordingly, each and every one of them is receiving a tune-up. We'd argue that the biggest upgrade is coming to News: the information app now supports both RSS feeds and offline reading, quite possibly to catch newshounds who need a home once Google Reader goes dark. The refresh also introduces livelier content across the board, including dynamic maps in Weather, real-time US stock updates in Finance, 29 new leagues in Sports and live traffic updates in Maps. Travel users may be equally happy to see new content from Fodor's, Frommer's and Lonely Planet. With the exception of the soon-to-come Weather release, all the app updates should be ready and waiting in the Windows Store -- get cracking if you live in Microsoft's online world.

    Jon Fingas
    04.15.2013

  • Microsoft makes Bing image search more social with one-click sharing to Pinterest

    Companies know how important it is to make their products as friendly as can be with third-party social websites, and Microsoft, for one, has done a pretty fantastic job at making sure the team behind Bing's doing exactly that. To wit, the Surface maker is, as of today, also starting to cater to the Pinterest crowd, announcing that it's now allowing users of the recently redesigned site to share Bing image search findings via a simple click -- assuming you're logged in, naturally. The new sharing feature might seem like a rather minor one on paper, but for avid Pinners, it'll certainly come in handy as they can keep their precious boards stocked up with a little less effort. And, well, you know what that means: more cats.

    Edgar Alvarez
    04.13.2013

  • IRL: Bing Translator, ioSafe N2 and the Mophie Juice Pack Air

    Welcome to IRL, an ongoing feature where we talk about the gadgets, apps and toys we're using in real life and take a second look at products that already got the formal review treatment. Yes, again with the mobile battery packs. (We're power users, okay?) In this week's roundup, Joe ditches his Elecom charger for the Mophie Air, and tells you everything you may wanted to know (and maybe a few things you didn't). Rounding things out, Darren kicks the tires on ioSafe's durable, "disaster-proof" NAS box, while Dan uses Bing Translator to avoid offending the lovely people of Germany.

    Engadget
    03.24.2013

  • Microsoft demos improvements to Bing voice recognition for Windows Phone

    "Nothing says fun like a speech demo." Those are the words of Microsoft's CTSO Eric Rudder, not ours -- although we do have to agree. As you'll see for yourself in the video after the break, Microsoft held a private event for its employees a few weeks ago showcasing some of the advancements it's achieved with Bing's voice search for Windows Phone. Thanks to the work of MS' Research arm and the folks at Advanced Technology Group, voice recognition accuracy on a prototype build has now been improved by up to 15-percent on the back end and should even see a further 10- to 15-percent performance boost. In addition to this decreased error rate, the team's also greatly enhanced the speed at which the app delivers relevant results. So when can you expect this new and improved Bing app for WP? That part's unclear, but it appears Microsoft's already implementing changes on the back end to bolster current use.

    Joseph Volpe
    03.21.2013

  • Microsoft posts its first Law Enforcement Requests Report, shows US-centric scrutiny

    Civil liberty advocates have had access to Google's Transparency Report and a handful of equivalents to understand just how frequently governments want our data. But what if we spend most of our time in Outlook.com, Skype or Xbox Live? Microsoft wants to show that it's equally concerned, and it's accordingly publishing its first-ever Law Enforcement Requests Report to reveal just how much attention the police gave to our information in 2012. The gist? While there were 75,378 international requests, 99 percent of the 1,558 actual content disclosures went straight to American agencies -- thankfully, with court warrants. Microsoft did get its fair share of FBI National Security Letter requests, although those may be short-lived. Different Microsoft services also received different levels of attention: Skype handed over certain account details but no actual content, while enterprise users were virtually untouched from Microsoft's position. The company plans to keep publishing these reports in the future, which should give us a better long-term sense of just how we're put under the microscope.

    Jon Fingas
    03.21.2013

  • Bing Desktop now integrates better with Facebook, adds more customization options

    It's been awhile since Microsoft made the Bing Desktop application compatible with more versions of Windows, but today the company's giving current (and potential) users more reasons to enjoy it. Most notably, Bing now lets social folks peek Facebook's News Feed and friends' photos from within the application, leaving out the need to launch a browser in a separate window. Furthermore, Microsoft also added the ability to search via the Windows Taskbar and some handy customization features, such as keyboard shortcuts and more wallpaper options with the help of Bing's renowned homepage images. Those in the US, UK, Australia, China, Canada, France, Germany, India and Japan can check out the revamped Bing Desktop now, though it's worth mentioning that the presence of a few of the new tidbits will vary depending on the country you're in and the Windows version you're running. Either way, you'll find the download at the source link below.

    Edgar Alvarez
    03.11.2013

  • Bing Maps revamped with ocean topography, updated satellite imagery

    Ballmer and Co. have loaded up Bing Maps with yet another batch of images, and though they're staying quiet about the update's file size this time, they say it includes 13,799,276 square kilometers of fresh high-res satellite shots and a better view of the ocean floor. Brand-new "straight down" photos give the base map a resolution of 15 meters per pixel, and the introduction of bathymetric imagery changes the ocean's hue depending on its depth. The refresh even contains fewer clouds, giving users a less obstructed view of Earth. Thanks to additional aerial photos covering 203,271 square kilometers, Microsoft's map service now covers the entirety of the US and 90 percent of Western Europe with pictures taken from aircraft. Armchair cartographers ready to explore the world remotely can find the revamped visuals already baked into Bing Maps online and within the service's Windows 8 app.

    Alexis Santos
    03.01.2013

  • Yandex passes Bing to become fourth largest search provider according to comScore

    Bing, Microsoft's attempt to take on Google directly. When it first launched there was quite a bit of fanfare and its market share grew quickly. It didn't exactly hack away at Mountain View's dominance, but it certainly made a small dent. Since then, things have slowed down and other players have asserted themselves in the global search battlefield. While Baidu has been riding high for quite some time, Yandex is a relative new-comer to the leader board. And, somewhat surprisingly, has already surpassed Microsoft for global market share according to stats provided to us by comScore. Though the margin is small, the Russian company saw more searches performed through its site than Microsoft in both November and December of 2012. The difference is small enough that those positions could swap again but, where as Bing has seen its numbers plateau over the last six months, Yandex has continued to grow. Of course, neither is anywhere near challenging Google which accounts for roughly 65 percent of the search traffic according to comScore's numbers and both only see about half the traffic of the number three competitor, Yahoo. Microsoft can still claim one victory over Yandex in the number of unique searchers, though. If you're curious for more we've put the entire chart after the break.

    Terrence O'Brien
    02.09.2013

  • Bing Pulse launching with help from Fox News, aims to make State of the Union speech more interactive

    Just in time for next week's State of the Union address, Bing announced it's teamed up with Fox News to launch Bing Pulse, a one-stop hub where folks can easily interact and share their thoughts with one another while President Barack Obama's speech is taking place. The Microsoft-owned search engine says that Pulse will allow participants to vote on reactions to the event every five seconds, with the impending results being shown on the Bing Politics site. What's more, Bing believes "this will be the largest live online poll in history," which will be enhanced by the outfit's new Beat "social sentiment tracker" -- a service that's set to collect and analyze data from Twitter in order to figure out what are the trendiest political topics during the speech. Folks interested in joining the Bing Pulse conversation should hit that more coverage link to get acquainted -- and, of course, don't forget to bookmark it so you're all set come February 12th.

    Edgar Alvarez
    02.09.2013

  • Microsoft releases Bing-powered apps for Office 365 Home Premium

    Because no corporate monolith can resist a good play at synergy, Microsoft's leveraging its properties to intro a suite of free Bing-powered apps for Office. If you've signed up for the company's recently released, cloud-based Office 365 Home Premium, you'll now be privy to five distinct Excel and Word applications that rely on the search engine for the insertion of dynamic data. For Excel, users can choose amongst Bing Maps, used to embed location data, and Bing Finance, which allows for the creation of a portfolio table. While Word-oriented Office 365 users will now have the added benefit of dedicated Image and News Search apps, letting them trawl the web and insert relevant info from within a document. There's also a Dictionary app that'll monitor your typing and make suggestion from within a right rail. It's all live in the Office Store now, so head on to the source to start your installs.

    Joseph Volpe
    01.31.2013

  • Bing Tags broaden reach with public results, extend beyond Facebook friends

    As bedfellows go, Microsoft and Facebook have had something of an open relationship; a knot of social / search entanglement that recently yielded Graph Search, among other crossovers. But, as of today, the two companies are looking to take things even further by building upon the work started with Bing Tags last summer. The integration, which previously allowed users to tag themselves or Facebook friends on sites and search queries for more personal feedback, will now extend beyond a user's inner circle and be made available to a "broader audience." Of course, privacy here is key (as we also learned from Facebook's last press event) and Microsoft's making it abundantly clear that this is opt-in. So, unless you give explicit approval for your tags to appear out-of-network, they won't -- only your friends will have access to those results. If you haven't already signed-up for the beta service, you can test it out at the source below.

    Joseph Volpe
    01.22.2013

  • Zuckerberg: Microsoft more willing to work with us, still open to a Google partnership

    Facebook's "one more thing" at today's Graph Search press conference? A search partnership with Bing. Naturally, Google was the elephant in the room after such an announcement, particularly in light of the fact that Lars Rasmussen has strong ties to the company by way of his connection to Maps and Wave. Asked why he opted not to take his business to Mountain View, Zuck told the crowd, The main thing is that when people share something on Facebook, we want to give them the ability to broadcast things, but also retract them later, and have them be removed immediately. Microsoft was more willing to do things specific to Facebook. We've reached out to Google to get its side of the story. We'll let you know what we hear.

    Brian Heater
    01.15.2013

  • Facebook partners with Bing to deliver web results in Graph Search

    Social media giant Facebook just announced that its new Graph Search tool will also incorporate results from the wider web thanks to a partnership with Microsoft and Bing. Obviously, people won't flock to Graph Search if it's capabilities are limited to where your friends live and the restaurants they like. Zuckerberg and crew will have to provide some way to find information that Facebook simply can't provide (for now...). That's where Bing comes in, with its ability to pull data like current weather conditions -- something your old frat buddies are probably useless to provide. This is hardly the first time Redmond has gotten cozy with Facebook. The social network is integrated rather closely with the search engine and Bing has been providing web search results on Facebook for sometime. Now there's just less of a wall between the two when looking at results. With Graph Search, Bing results are put front and center, with some social context. For a bit more information from Microsoft's perspective hit up the more coverage link.

    Terrence O'Brien
    01.15.2013

  • Bing brings new social sidebar to the iPad, helps you see who's been looking for what

    Bing's desktop version recently underwent a bit of a makeover and Microsoft has now added its search engine's new social sidebar for the iPad's Safari users. Upon performing a web search, folks will have access to a side pane displaying related results from the likes of Facebook, Foursquare, Klout and Twitter. Supporting both portrait and landscape formatting, the updated design is set to gradually roll out over the next few days. Just in time for you to check out who's going to see The Hobbit in 48fps this weekend when searching for showtimes and theaters.

    Mark Hearn
    12.14.2012

  • Microsoft updates Bing Desktop app for Windows XP and higher

    Previously only enjoyed by Windows 7 users, Microsoft has updated its Bing Desktop app to play nice with all modern versions of Windows going all the way back to XP. The OS' latest iteration already packs a slew of Bing-powered applications, but none of them replicate the app's headlining trick: syncing desktop backgrounds with Bing's daily wallpaper. Windows 8 (and XP, Vista and server) users who adopt the 1.1 update can set the app to change their background daily, or manually set it to any background from the past nine days. News aficionados can peek at trending headlines and popular images underneath the search field, which itself can be docked at the top of the screen for easy access. Microsoft has also added French, German, Chinese and Japanese language support to the app. If this piques your interest, go ahead and download it at the source -- that is, if you haven't Google-fied your Start Screen just yet.

    Nicole Lee
    12.14.2012

  • Bing gives its social sidebar a makeover, makes it easier to find what you're looking for

    Even though it was only yesterday that Bing announced it was making some changes to the site's snapshot pane, today Redmond's search engine is coming back with a few additional tweaks. The most noticeable change is the redesigned social sidebar, which maintains its original purpose but trims a lot of the UI's unnecessary fat -- better yet, however, Bing says it'll make it much easier to find folks who are specifically relevant to you, as the improved sidebar bases search results on what friends (and other people) have posted on social networks like Twitter, Facebook and even Foursquare. There's a small chance you won't be able to spot the new social sidebar just yet, but Bing says it should begin showing up "over the next few days."

    Edgar Alvarez
    12.12.2012

  • Bing boosts snapshot search with richer info on famous faces and places

    Whether you're upfront about it or firmly in the closet, the search data doesn't lie: we all have a pop culture crush. Which is why Microsoft's expanding Bing's snapshot pane, one of three columns within its revamped layout, to display expanded data on celebrities and landmarks. (What? You thought all of those Kim Kardashian keyword searches went unnoticed?) Now, users that enter queries related to either of those two categories will be able to preview a host of relevant info (e.g., filmography, discography, movie trailers and track previews) from that second results column, all culled from a wider reach of sources. It's the first of many planned enhancements for Microsoft's search platform, so stay tuned for further changes in the "coming weeks."

    Joseph Volpe
    12.10.2012

  • Bing Translator gets updated for Windows Phone 8, available now in the Store

    The Bing Translator app has been helping Windows Phone users avoid cross-cultural mishaps since April of last year, adding augmented reality and offline capability along the way. Naturally, Microsoft has updated this utility for Windows Phone 8. The latest version of Translator supports six languages (Chinese, English, French, German, Italian and Spanish) and features a new "lens" for translating text via a smartphone's camera. The app is available as a free download in the Store. Head past the break to see it in action.

    Sarah Silbert
    11.27.2012
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