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Yahoo Starts Testing Microsoft Search Listings

nrmodh — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 01:59:48 +0000

Quite recently, we told you that Yahoo was going to start testing with Microsoft soon, and today, they have officially announced that Yahoo is now testing organic and paid search listings from Microsoft’s Bing powered search backend.

Yahoo has begun testing displaying organic and paid listings using Microsoft’s search engine Bing. The only difference between the older and newer search is that the results will no longer be served by Yahoo, however, the interface and design of Yahoo search will remain the same.

As seen in the screenshot above, the organic search results in the yellow boxes are powered by Microsoft and include a mix of both organic and paid listings, the rest of the content on the page is still processed by Yahoo themselves. Right now, the Microsoft powered search listings will only be displayed on Yahoo web search.

However, Yahoo is also planning to include the Microsoft powered search listings on Yahoo! Mobile properties. Yahoo plans to roll out full Microsoft integration to all US and Canada users by August/September timeframe. More at the Yahoo! Search Blog.

Bing now does voice-guided SatNav on WinMo phones for free

nrmodh — Thu, 13 May 2010 02:28:15 +0000

Bing Maps is getting into the navigation business in a bid to further deprive dedicated SatNav unit manufacturers. It now supports voice-guided navigation on Windows Mobile 6.x phones on a number of devices.

Following in the footsteps of its rival in the mapping world, Google Maps, Bing has added turn-by-turn navigation capabilities with voice prompts to its mobile application.

To use the feature, all you have to do is update the Bing application and tap the “Navigate” button when getting directions. Its routing algorithm is customizable so you can choose the fastest or the shortest route, avoid traffic and tolls and other things you’d expect from a SatNav application.

The updated Bing application works on Windows Mobile 6.x, but we’re guessing there will be a Windows Phone 7 version when the new OS arrives. Go to m.bing.com on your WinMo phone to get the update.

However, voice-guided goodness is available only in the US for AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint subscribers and not all WinMo phones. Hit the source link to see the list of compatible phones.

Source

Bing nowhere to be found in iPhone OS 4.0

nrmodh — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 04:25:23 +0000

Rumors that Bing was to be the default search engine in an upcoming iPhone OS update can continue to be filed in the rumor bin, at least based on the developer preview release of OS 4.0.

Bing is still nowhere to be seen in the iPhone’s Safari app, or anywhere else in the preview version of the OS. Besides Google, which remains the default search engine, the only other option remains Yahoo.

It’s still possible that the Apple/Microsoft deal could be under way though. And if that’s the case, it could just as easily make it into a future beta of the OS, or in the version that will be made available to iPhone owners sometime this summer.

One interesting change worth noting is that Web searches are now more ingrained into the system search that was implemented in OS 3.0. Now, when doing a local search on your phone, the iPhone will spit up quick links for Web and Wikipedia searches using Safari. This could place more importance on whatever search engine you’re using as the default.

During Thursday’s event, Apple CEO Steve Jobs went into detail on how search was largely a paradigm of desktop computing, but these changes could very well be the first inklings that the iPhone is getting a system search tool that is more integrated with the Web, as competitor Google has done on its Android OS.

In the meantime, iPhone owners who are looking to get a hearty dose of Bing can download Microsoft’s native iPhone app, which was released in December.

Mozilla director asks users to go to Bing

nrmodh — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 01:24:40 +0000

Says to leave google

War of the words aren’t just limited to Hollywood and Bollywood celebrities – the flaming happens even with honchos of tech giants like Google and Microsoft.

In a recent development, Asa Dotzler, who is the Director of Community Development of Mozilla asked users to leave Google and switch to Microsoft’s Bing search engine. Note that Mozilla is funded by Google, the search engine giant pumps in millions of dollars every year to Mozilla for development of their Firefox and other products like Thunderbird. So what exactly happened here?

It turns out, Dotzler wasn’t quite happy with Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s remarks about privacy. Schmidt had stated in his blog post that those truly scared about the revelation of their ‘wrongdoings’ are the only ones who care about privacy. Here’s the part of Schmidt’s speech: ‘If you have something that you don’t want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn’t be doing it in the first place. If you really need that kind of privacy, the reality is that search engines — including Google — do retain this information for some time and it’s important, for example, that we are all subject in the United States to the Patriot Act and it is possible that all that information could be made available to the authorities.’

Dotzler didn’t exactly find Schmidt’s little speech funny, and in retaliation showed in his blog post how to switch Firefox’s default search engine from Google to Bing. “Here’s how you can easily switch Firefox’s search from Google to Bing. (Yes, Bing does have a better privacy policy than Google.)” Dotzler wrote, with some of the test hyperlinked to the tutorial.