In its attempt to challenge Google, Microsoft is adding extra features to its Bing search service. Microsoft announced a new refreshed homepage, new logo and the addition of two features: Glance and Page Zero.
Glance combines two existing features – Snapshot, which stores information about a user, and Sidebar, which tracks friends from Facebook, Twitter and other social networks — to create more contextual and personalized search results.
[related-posts]
Page Zero is a feature which improves on its instant search. The feature begins providing useful information while they are typing, in a bid to prevent them from needing to click search and visit the search results page. You will find the right-hand side bar lighting up with information, via Page Zero, including links to news, images, videos and more, while a fact box — which appears very similar to Google’s — also appears to provide more data quickly.
Microsoft says it will continue to tweak the Page Zero feature to ensure that it is producing relative content up front — whether that be deep links to a news story or ‘check in’ and ‘flight status’ information for airline-related inquiries.
Microsoft also says that the current Bing logo “wasn’t working” so it ran “hundreds” of studies to investigate motion, font, color, size and form. After building mock ads, product examples and virtual billboards, it zeroed in on the new design.
Source: TNW
