This spring, we launched the latest Bing design that brings friends, experts and enthusiasts into the search experience through a dedicated “sidebar”. We committed to working with industry partners to make the social experience in Bing compelling and useful for our customers. Today we are excited to share that we are delivering the first new Bing sidebar integration since we turned on the new Bing experience in June.
Starting today, people in the US will begin to see tips and recommendations from foursquare in the sidebar column on the right hand side of the screen. Now when you’re planning a trip to that dream destination or a night on the town, you can find people who are knowledgeable about the place you’re searching, based on what they’ve publically shared on foursquare.
How does it work? Later this week, I’m meeting some friends at a new restaurant. To learn more, I search on Bing for “Foreign Cinema” the name of the restaurant. In addition to photos from my friends and reviews from bloggers, I now see public tips from foursquare users in the ‘People Who Know’ section in the sidebar.
Thanks to the Bing and foursquare collaboration, I have now found delightful insights like “try the fried chicken” from real users to help me get the most out of my night.
As another example, if I search on Bing for “Starbucks” I find helpful tips from foursquare users about the best deals on refills and free wifi at my local Starbucks cafe.
The tips that we surface on Bing depend on the venue you are searching for and your location. For example, if you’re in New York your Starbucks search results would be specific to that area and different than the results that someone might see if they search in San Francisco.
To see the feature in action, check out this video with Stefan Weitz:
For users in the US, the first phase of the rollout starts today, you will see the frequency and volume increase over time as we continuously refine the feature. Give it a shot at www.bing.com.
Happy Searching!
– Swati Gharse, Senior Program Manager, Bing Social Team
