Today we’re stoked to have an update to the Bing app for iPhone and iPod Touch for all of you. There are a few new features to tell you about – some of which you’ll see right on the new home page.
Social – Now you can connect your Facebook and Twitter accounts and see combined status updates from your friends from within the Bing app. But that’s easy. When we asked what else we could do with this personal intelligence, we looked at the data behind how people were using their social networks. Turns out that over 40% of the time when people ask ambiguous queries that don’t have a defined answer (like where should I go to eat tonight), social networks are faster at providing a great answer than traditional search engines.
So now when you search for something using our (beautiful, if I might say) Bing app, you’ll see web results along with relevant results from your social network. So if you search for a movie, you’ll see movie showtimes first, then anything your friends may have said about it next. This is also handy for local businesses or products where you want to see what your network is saying. Last, when you find something you like using the app, you can easily share it with your network on Facebook, Twitter, or through email.
Visual Scanning – speaking of finding products, the iPhone app now features visual scanning of barcodes and cover art. Use the camera on your iPhone to scan the barcode of any product or the cover art of books, CDs, DVDs, or video games. You’ll see descriptions, and often reviews, prices, and links to merchant websites. This feature makes it easy to comparison shop for your favorite products or just find a place to buy that book your friend won’t shut up about.
In addition to these new features, the team also made improvements to the Movies section, where you can now get even more video and trailers and easier access to showtimes. And since we know commerce is one of the main tasks people are doing with these devices, the new Shopping section lets you find products super fast along with prices and links to stores selling the products.
Download the update using iTunes today and try out the new features!
Justin Jed – Bing for mobile
Other posts of interest:
Updated Bing App for Windows Phone
Grooving to the Music on your iPhone courtesy of NuTsie and Bing
