Protecting Bing users from malware is a top priority for the Index Quality team. To that end, we analyze every signal available to us and determine not only whether the page is infected, but also whether it runs at a high risk of infection at a future date. One of the key elements of this analysis is discovering clues about potential vulnerabilities on the ‘container’ hosting the page that could be exploited by malware distributors to spread their...
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A new version of the Bing app for iPhone is now available for download from the Apple App Store.   With this release, we were able to take advantage of the extensibility possible in iOS8 making it easier to extend the reach and functionality of Bing on iPhone. Let’s take a look at what’s new Translate the Web to Your Native Language from the Bing App or Safari Whether you’re traveling in a foreign country or trying to brush up on second language...
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Here is a deeply troubling statistic:  1 in 5 women and 1 in 16 men are sexually assaulted in college. At the White House earlier today, President Obama urged all Americans to stand up against sexual assault on college and university campuses. Microsoft is pleased to be a partner in the effort of “It’s On Us,” a private-public partnership formed in response to this call to action between the Center for American Progress and a number of companies...
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At Bing, we’re constantly striving to make your search experience better.  In order to do this, we spend a lot of time examining what you’re trying to accomplish. When it comes to image search, we know that when you conduct a search you’re either looking for a specific image or you’re looking to browse and explore across a range of different topics.  We refer to these primary intents as hunting and exploring. Often you’ll start hunting and end up...
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Last month we announced that we’d recently surpassed the 100-city mark for both our Streetside imagery and our 3D cities. This month we’re adding even more new places to visit, including a number of cities where big time professional and college sports are part of the fall calendar. Whether you’re going to the big game or watching on television photorealistic imagery on Bing Maps is a great way to enhance your experience. Below, we highlight just...
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After correctly predicting the last winner, Bing Predicts is back again for a new season of Dancing with the Stars! Once again, we will be employing a variety of different signals including search queries and social input from Facebook and Twitter to predict the eliminations and top performers. Last season, we were able to predict all but one of the eliminations during show’s run. To see where you favorite contestant stacks up, simply search for...
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As the only major search engine to offer a tailored experience for school networks, we’re always thinking about how to customize our experience for the classroom. Today, we are releasing a new feature designed to help students better access educational resources, navigate the web, and develop critical digital skills – even easier than before. The more than 9,000 schools enrolled in ad-free, safer, more private search through Bing in the Classroom...
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The latest release of the Bing Maps for Windows is now available in the Windows Store. With this release, we set out to take some of the hassle out of public transportation. In select cities in the US, Canada and the UK, we are shipping a trial experience to see if you find it useful. Now you can plan your journey via bus, train or subway in a few short clicks. Get all the details in the official announcement on the Bing Blog and let us know...
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Let’s face it.  Sometimes using public transportation can be a bit nerve wracking.  Am I taking the fastest route? Will I miss my bus?  How long will it take me walk to the nearest subway stop? This is especially true if you’re just in town for the weekend and particularly so if you’re not familiar with the local routes. With our latest release of the Bing Maps Preview app for Windows (8.1) we set out to take some of the hassle out of public...
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As we alluded to in last week’s Index Quality blog, today’s update will focus on one specific spam filtering mechanism we rolled out a few months ago that targets a common spam technique known as URL keyword stuffing (KWS.) What is URL KWS? Like any other black hat technique, the goal of URL KWS, at a high level, is to manipulate search engines to give the page a higher rank than it truly deserves. The underlying idea unique to URL KWS relies on...
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