Microsoft has announced a new feature that will more deeply integrate Facebook into its Bing search engine experience.
In a blog post on the Bing Community website, MS corporate VP Yusuf Mehdi explained the importance of creating a localized, personalized search experience for users.
He wrote, “The best decisions are not just fueled by facts, they require the opinions and emotions of your friends. Search is now more than a fact finder — [In this update] we’re marrying fact-based search results with your friends’ street smarts to combine the best data on the Web with the opinions of the people you trust the most and the collective IQ of the Web.”
Features of the new Bing search include popular sites that friends “like,” social messages from friends and brands, as well as conversational search.
According to Mehdi, conversational search combines Facebook’s communication tools with Bing, offering new items such as an expanded Facebook profile search, Bing travel wish list to compare with friends, a “friends who live here” feature, flight deals integrated directly into your Facebook feed, “shared shopping lists,” and an “updated Bing bar” with a universal “like” button.
The partnership marks a new frontier for Microsoft and Bing, as they are the first company to truly tap into and integrate with Facebook’s massive 600 million strong user base. No doubt people will navigate directly from Facebook into the Bing search-o-sphere with the new partnership, benefitting both Facebook and Microsoft in a somewhat symbiotic relationship.
“Bing and Facebook are making a bet – one that will marry the logic of search, with the recommendations and opinions of your social network and the masses – to extend search beyond just fact-based decision making, to decisions that are made with the power of people AND search,” added Mehdi.
