A year in the life of Bing

It’s been an incredible first year for Bing. During this time we’ve worked hard to make your online search experience a visually rich experience, rather than providing text heavy blue lines.

Bing has led the way in offering image based searches with our Visual Search engine where users can do everything from finding out Prince William’s age to the world’s most remote beaches. The team are very proud of some of the key milestones we have reached, most notably in September when we became the second most popular search engine according to Nielsen.

To celebrate a year of innovation, the UK Bing team has analysed some of the quirkiest searches over the last twelve months and the results include men’s Spanx and geek glasses. Check out the full list below.

Quirkiest searches of 2010

·         Ladies raised their cosmos to the Sex and the City girls, with the sequel of their first movie causing a 366 per cent rise in searches for Cosmopolitan recipes in May – Hic!

·         Footie fans during the 2010 World Cup were enthusiastic at the thought of winning as there was a 233 per cent increase in Bing searches for England shirts in June. Shame about the result!

·         Wedding bells have been ringing over time in India with a 250 per cent spike in searches for Indian weddings, since Katy and Russell’s tied the knot this June

·         In June, Bing searches for Guyliner rocketed by 74 per cent after Housemate John James sported the smoky eye effect on Big Brother

·         Brits were heard shouting “Hy-ah!” and trying to karate chop wood in half with the release of the new Karate Kid movie. The month of July triggered a 587 per cent increase in searches for karate classes – ouch!

·         In July, there was a chorus of screaming girls across the country when Robbie Williams announced his return to the legendary boy band Take That. The launch of their first album in ten years, triggered a spike in all things Take That by 166 per cent

·         David Beckham re-invented ‘cool’ this year. After he was snapped wearing Geek glasses in September, Bing searches for the glasses were at an all time high, jumping up by 120 per cent from August

·         This year Cheryl Cole proved in more ways than one that she was Britain’s ‘it’ girl. The release of her raunchy 2011 calendar in August triggered a  150 per cent increase in Cheryl Cole Bing searches

·         We can thank the JLS boys for encouraging safe sex in the UK this year. The launch of the boy band’s range of protection saw Bing searches for condoms double during the month of September

·         New TV series The Only Way is Essex has triggered a beauty trend with women now getting their lady bits vajazzled! Searches for vajazzle sets have risen by 320 per cent since the show launched in October. Oh, Shut up!