TNW Quick Hit: Bing, in its continuing struggle to differentiate itself from Google, has today released theBing Business Portal, a new tool that replaces the Bing Local Listing Center. The Business Portal is a collection of tools that allow businesses to claim their profile on Bing, update it with accurate information, and also to generate deals and coupons. According to the official copy, the core capabilities of the Business Portal are:...
As any Windows Phone user can tell you, of all the Bing products Bing Maps is easily the best. While Bing’s web results are still not as good as Google’s, though they are quite capable and usable on a day-to-day basis, Bing Maps is now nearly neck and neck with Google Maps in terms of usability and information quality. Microsoft has released alengthy PDFthat explains the latest changes to Bing Maps that have just been shipped, which we have taken the time to read and digest for you....
Microsoft hasannouncedthe launch of a new Deals section on its desktop and mobile website. Rather than offer any money-saving offers itself, Bing’s Deals tab will aggregate 200,000 offers in over 14,000 cities and towns across the US. The feature is the result of a partnership with The Dealmap and sees deals from the likes of Groupon, Living Social and Restaurant.com included in its results. On Bing’s mobile website, deal search is location aware, allowing users to find the best offers “within a few blocks” of their current location....
Bing is doing what no one used to think was possible: knocking search market share points off of Google, and collecting them. Yes, Bing-powered search in the United States justbroke the 30% barrier, clocking in at 30.01% in March according to Hitwise. That was a rise from its February tally of 28.48%. Google in the same time period dropped from 66.69% to 64.42%, ceding that ground to Bing. Both Yahoo search, which Bing powers, and core Bing....
Microsoft is again using its vast coffers as a weapon,partnering Bing with Angry Birdsto push the search engine among the tens of millions of social gamers that the app has become friends with. The partnership has two elements: videos showing off in-game characters using Bing to win, and what Microsoft calls ‘search integration’ between the game and the search engine. In their own words: Angry Birds will also feature search integration with Bing providing over a hundred clues to speed you through the levels and help squash the porcine thieves....
