14 DAY TRIAL // The Bing app for iPhone and iPod touch has evolved with new social networking capabilities, and a new release is currently available for download for owners of Apple’s devices. Justin Jed, from the Bing for mobile team, revealed that Microsoft had extended the application to embrace Facebook and Twitter. In addition, the update delivered to Bing app for iPhone and iPod touch also brings new features to the table.
Just as it is the case with a plethora of other services and rich clients from Windows Live and online properties such as MSN, the Bing app for iPhone and iPod touch now enables customers to easily connect to both Facebook and Twitter. Users will be able to bridge their accounts for the two social networking hotspots mentioned above and the Bing app for their Apple mobile phone or MP3 player. This will allow them to easily receive status updates right in the application.
However, according to Microsoft, there is much more to the evolution of Bing app for the iPhone and iPod touch than simply allowing users to connect to Facebook and Twitter. The Redmond company has worked to allow customers leveraging the Bing app to actually search content from the two networks.
“When we asked what else we could do with this personal intelligence, we looked at the data behind how people were using their social networks. Turns out that over 40% of the time when people ask ambiguous queries that don’t have a defined answer (like where should I go to eat tonight), social networks are faster at providing a great answer than traditional search engines,” Jed explained.
“So now when you search for something using our (beautiful, if I might say) Bing app, you’ll see web results along with relevant results from your social network. So if you search for a movie, you’ll see movie showtimes first, then anything your friends may have said about it next. This is also handy for local businesses or products where you want to see what your network is saying. Last, when you find something you like using the app, you can easily share it with your network on Facebook, Twitter, or through email,” Jed added.
In addition, iPhone customers can leverage the device’s camera in concert with the Bing app in order to perform Visual Scanning. The new visual scanning feature is designed to allow users to take snapshots of barcodes and cover art. In this regard, the iPhone’s camera can act as a barcode scanner, while the Bing app will return a variety of results from descriptions to reviews, pricing information, and even links to online shops.
“In addition to these new features, the team also made improvements to the Movies section, where you can now get even more video and trailers and easier access to showtimes. And since we know commerce is one of the main tasks people are doing with these devices, the new Shopping section lets you find products super fast along with prices and links to stores selling the products,” Jed stated.
