Friday, January 18, 2013

Bing Gets (Even More) Social With Update

Bing, the search engine site owned by Microsoft, has gotten even more social, saying this week that it has expanded the search results it pulls from Facebook's social networking service. The firm, which has already been incorporating some details from Facebook connections of its users on the site, now pulls in significantly more information from your social networks when you search for information. The enhancements come as part of a close relationship between Microsoft and Facebook, and the addition of a new search feature on Facebook this week called Graph Search. Bing said it is now pulling information from your friends into its sidebar when users conduct a search; for example, users searching for details on a trip to New York will see both normal search results, but other details and information from friends who might live or have visited the city. Bing said the additions provide five times more data content from friends on Facebook in the sidebar, including searching for status updates, shared links, comments, and photos.