14 DAY TRIAL // People may be critical of Google's move to add a social component to search and the company may be moving too aggressively and too narrowly, focusing on Google+ alone. But everyone recognizes that search engines need a social component.
Microsoft may be screaming its lungs out over Google's latest moves, all the while it's adding more social integration of its own.
And, surprisingly or not, it's still based on a single social network, the difference is that it's Facebook, in which Microsoft has a stake.
Bing Linked Pages has a rather self-explanatory name, it's a Facebook app that enables users to link all of their profiles and pages from around the web around a single identity.
This way, when a friend or a prospective employer for that matter searches for their name on Bing, a list of profiles that are known to be linked to that person will be presented.
"With Linked Pages, we’re letting you link websites related to you in search results. Now your friends looking for you online can find what you want them to find. You can also link pages to your friends to help them shine on Bing as well," Bing explained.
You have to sign into your Facebook account to use the feature. After that, you'll see a Linked Pages tab in Bing where you'll be able to find and add pages that are linked to you. An interesting feature is the ability to link pages to your friends as well.
You can also remove linked pages that you've previously added or that your friends have added and only you will be able to link them back.
The feature solves some of the issues others have had with trying to merge online identities, but suffers from one big flaw, it relies on users curating their linked pages. Few people will even know it is possible and even fewer will go to the trouble of linking pages and adding new ones.