Find Famous People and Places in a Snap

In May, Bing launched a new three column look, which was designed to fundamentally change how you interact with search to help you do more. One of the key elements of the new search experience is the middle column, which we refer to as snapshot. With snapshot, Bing brings relevant information and services, such as maps and restaurant reviews and reservations, which are directly related to your search within the main results page.  And, since our launch, we’ve run thousands of experiments to see which types of tasks most frequently are searched for on Bing, and determined that people and places are among some of the most popular things people do in Bing. Which is why today, we’re excited to announce that Bing is rolling out two new categories in snapshot: people and landmarks.

Now when you search for a famous person, celebrity or place, we will present relevant facts about that person in the center part of the screen so you can quickly find what you’re looking for without having to click through to another site or page.

We’ve now expanded the snapshot to cover famous people and places as well as made updates to include different sources including reviews and new modes of interaction. Right on the main results page, you can make more informed decisions about topics related to people.

You can even stay up-to-date on your favorite celebrity with a summary of current information like recent movies, albums, and related celebrities, instead of a list of blue links. You can watch movie trailers, listen to and purchase music, with just one-click. With snapshot, Bing does the heavy lifting by organizing useful information so you can act more quickly.

Stay tuned as we will be adding additional categories in the coming weeks!

– Alam Ali, Principal Program Manager, Bing