bing

To make results more relevant, Microsoft is launching a new feature in Bing search that bakes in recommendations from Facebook friends.

The new feature, making its debut tomorrow, will elevate results that have received a thumbs-up "like" from a friend on Facebook. So if a user is searching for a Thai restaurant in San Francisco, for example, a particular spot that received kudos from that person's Facebook posse will climb in the results.

Microsoft, which likes to call Bing a "decision engine" to distinguish it from Google, wants Bing to mimic the real world, where … Read more

Facebook gets busted for actually hiring a PR agency to try to plant anti-Google stories in the press. Wow. What are you guys, like 14? Oh, wait. Kind of, yeah. In other rant bait, an FCC commissioner who blocked any conditions regulating the NBC/Comcast merger got a lobbying gig at Comcast! How ... sleazy. Plus, the sad story of the other Mark Zuckerberg, and I finally finish my Keynote presentation about my spring break to Alaska. --Molly

Microsoft's Bing eked out 14.1 percent of all searches in the U.S. in April, according to the latest ComScore data, released yesterday.

That's still a far cry from market leader Google, which holds a commanding 65.4 percent of the market. But those numbers show a trend over the past year in which each month Bing grabs a slightly bigger slice of the U.S. search engine pie, while Google sheds a tiny amount or stays flat.

For the month, Microsoft's market share gain was just 0.2 of a percentage point, while Google's … Read more

A new iPhone app from Microsoft can create full panoramas from a series of individual photos that you snap with your device's camera.

Compatible with the iPhone 3Gs and 4, the iPad 2, and the iPod Touch 4G, Photosynth is simple to use since Microsoft does most of the hard work.

You simply point your device at the subject and tap the screen to snap the first photo. The app then prompts you to position your device to take the next shot. You can then either tap the screen to shoot again or wait for the app to automatically … Read more

Microsoft and Google each grabbed a tiny sliver more of the U.S. search market last month, according to ComScore.

Both companies gained three-tenths of a point of market share in March, compared with February.

Overall, Google sites accounted for 65.7 percent of the 16.9 billion searches in the U.S. last month, ComScore said yesterday. Microsoft sites snagged 13.9 percent, while Yahoo sites held 15.7 percent. As always, ComScore's figures specifically track "explicit core" searches, which are search terms that people manually enter on a Web page.

Beyond the core search numbers, … Read more

Cisco Systems shuts down production of the Flip video camera

You can now rent movies in your browser through Vudu

HTC launches the Sensation with a video-streaming service called HTC Watch

Nokia releases two new phones with Anna, the newest iteration of Symbian

Sprint kicks off a streaming music service and store called Music Plus

Microsoft hopes to rival Google Maps Street View with Bing Maps Streetside, which has started image capture in London

The Firesay Firefox extension lets you use voice control in Facebook

Apple announces Final Cut Pro X

The upcoming … Read more

Microsoft's Bing captured 30 percent of all searches run in the U.S. last month, market researcher Experian Hitwise said yesterday.

Looking at the U.S. search engine market in March, Experian Hitwise found that the number of searches at sites powered by Bing rose by 5 percent since February. That includes searches run on Bing's own site as well as those on Yahoo sites powered by Bing. Individually, Bing.com itself accounted for 14.3 percent of all searches, while the ones on Yahoo tallied 15.7 percent.

Market leader Google continued to dominate in the U.… Read more

Microsoft has started taking photos in London for Streetside, its Bing Maps photo feature that will go up against Google Street View in the United Kingdom.

The Streetside feature will display street-level images collected using a 360-degree camera, the company said today. Mapping specialist Navteq--which is wholly owned by Nokia--has partnered with Microsoft and is providing the cars to take the 360-degree photos. As well as collecting images, Navteq will gather point-of-interest data such as where landmarks or pubs are located and other road and location information.

"Users should begin seeing [U.K.] images on Bing Maps from … Read more

Microsoft today is releasing its first iPad application, a version of its Bing mobile application that's been specifically designed for tablet users.

And make no mistake about it, Microsoft is trying its hardest to encourage people to use it over the built-in Safari browser when searching and exploring the Web.

It's a bold claim, so let's take a look at some of the things that the Bing iPad app does to back up that claim.

As you'd imagine, the app revolves around searching on Bing. No matter what you're doing in the app there's … Read more