'New' Bing tackles Google

In what Microsoft has called its most significant update to Bing since its launch, the search engine will pull data from social networks to essentially do what Google's Search Plus Your World doesn't.

The new interface combines information from across the Web with input from friends and experts - placed in a separate column on the side.

Google was dragged over the coals earlier this year when it announced it would be adding information from its social platform Google+ to the standard search results. The key issue was that the search giant was seen to be using its dominant position to push its own services.

At the time, Google claimed it was not including data from competitors like Twitter and Facebook, simply because it was not granted the necessary API access. Microsoft, on the other hand, appears to have signed all the necessary deals with the major social networks in order to seriously take on Google's social search offering.

However, Bing is not new to social search and has had a longstanding relationship with Facebook in particular. The latest update serves to provide what Microsoft calls “better clarity of information”.

Corporate VP for Bing Derrick Connell says: “Both Bing and Google were starting to jam social signals into the Web results, and it turns out it wasn't that relevant, and it was overloading users with clutter. With this release, we've taken most of that out of the Web results and given users the traditional search results that they love and expect.”

The new design essentially sees results organised into three columns. These are divided into the traditional search results, followed by a snapshot of what Bing deems the most important factual information, and finally (and most significantly), a new “social sidebar” on the far right, which will have social data from Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Blogger (with LinkedIn, Quora and Foursquare soon to be added).

Microsoft's president of online services, Qi Lu, says: “We're evolving search in a way that recognises new user paradigms like the growth of the social graph, and will empower people with the broad knowledge of the Web alongside the help of their friends.”

Bing senior director Stefan Weitz says the traditional “10 blue links” that search has been predicated on for the last decade no longer makes sense. “People are using the Web to do things in the real world, and that's a big change from where things were a decade ago.”

The “Snapshot” feature provides information related to the search topic compiled by Bing, aimed to make the most useful information easily accessible.

According to Microsoft, initially Snapshot will be displayed for searches where Bing can determine a clear customer intent, focused on accomplishing a specific task, including finding restaurants, hotels, businesses and movies. The feature will be expanded over time.

The most significant update is the social sidebar, where Microsoft says users are encouraged to take action based on recommendations from friends and experts.

Microsoft explains the rationale behind the social sidebar with its consumer survey results that showed 92% of respondents trust word-of-mouth recommendations from friends and family. However, only 8% are said to actually use social networks to get things done.

“More and more people are joining social networks, chatting about things on Facebook and Twitter, but it's very difficult to capture their knowledge on a Web page,” says Connell.

Now, when completing a search, Bing will provide a list of the user's Facebook friends who may know about the search topic. This is decided by an algorithm that scans public profile information such as where a person lives, what their likes are and their photos. The sidebar will also show the names of experts and enthusiasts who blog or tweet about the search topic.

“The goal is to surface the people who have knowledge about a particular topic,” says Connell. “We want to make it easy for people to accomplish anything they set out to do by allowing them to tap into the wisdom of their friends and of the broader Web - the 95% of things people know, but never write down.”

The updated version of Bing will be rolled out to users in the coming weeks. Microsoft has said the update will be available across the US by early June, but has not specified a timeline for availability in other regions.