Bing gets geekier with new Wolfram Alpha integration

[SonsOfLiberty]

http://pic.leech.it/i/756c9/22afba1binglogo.jpgBing gets geekier with new Wolfram Alpha integration

Since Microsoft's Bing search engine debuted, it's made a strong charge against Google, the search market's dominant player. It has had diverse and attention-grabbing advertising campaigns, its partnership with Yahoo is one of the biggest search collaborations of the last decade, and it regularly rolls out timely and compelling new features like the recent integration of Twitter and Facebook feeds.

Because of this, Bing has been steadily gaining traffic and revenue, according to recent figures by Hitwise and IDC.

Today, Bing is beginning to show a geekier and more productive side through a partnership with computational search engine Wolfram Alpha. Now, in addition to doing Web searches, Bing can process raw numerical data in areas such as nutrition, health and advanced mathematics.

"By using our API, Bing will be able to seamlessly access the tens of thousands of algorithms and trillions of pieces of data from Wolfram|Alpha, and directly incorporate the computations in its search results," Wolfram Alpha's Schoeller Porter wrote today.

For an increasing number of topics, Bing can create more sticky search results pages. One of the examples the Bing team used in its blog today was the query "dodecahedron," a twelve-sided polygon (and character in Norton Juster's kid's story The Phantom Tollbooth). On the Bing results page, it now shows an image of the polygon, its combinatorial properties, its geometric properties, and more. On Google, it also provides images, but everything else is presented as a link, immediately shuffling the searcher off to another site. The more useful data Bing can deliver, the longer it will be able to keep the user aboard.

These features began rolling out today, but will not be complete for a few days, so availability of Wolfram Alpha results will vary.

:source: Source: Beta News (http://www.betanews.com/article/Bing-gets-geekier-with-new-Wolfram-Alpha-integration/1257972964):view: Homepage: Bing (http://www.bing.com/) | Wolfman-Alpha (http://www.wolframalpha.com/)

[iLOVENZB]

Can Google really get taken down by Bing? I don't think so :P

[SonsOfLiberty]

Nah I don't think so either, maybe in a few years after it develops.

[Eros-x]

Google is invisible.

[Tv Controls you]

Google is invisible.

Do you mean invincible or invisible?

Also this is a big leap for bing as I myself am I very large user of wolfram. I use it for all my trig and calculus classes I take.

Now i can just type that into bing. As much as i hate supporting bing, its seeming to be almost better than google anymore. I hate microsoft so i use google on purpose. ;)

One thing is for sure, google needs to step up their game big time. I mean i don't ever think that bing will take over completely, but google will lose buisness because of them.

[1000possibleclaws]

Wolfram-alpha is a pretty amazing site. I could see this as possible competition against google in the coming years. That is assuming Google slacks off and stops innovating, which is somewhat doubtful, at least for the moment.

edit: Just started using Bing and I have to say I am impressed!

[Tv Controls you]

Wolfram-alpha is a pretty amazing site. I could see this as possible competition against google in the coming years. That is assuming Google slacks off and stops innovating, which is somewhat doubtful, at least for the moment.

edit: Just started using Bing and I have to say I am impressed!

Don't use bing! your supporting microsoft lol!

long live google :partytime

[Rart]

I still much prefer Google over Bing. I feel like Microsoft is trying to hard, I'm really liking the minimalistic design. A search is supposed to be just that, a quick and simple way to find the information you need. The massive background pictures of landscapes are really distracting, not to mention the fact that they'll probably be a pain for slower connections (does dial up still exist?) to load.

[xuxoxux]

I still much prefer Google over Bing. I feel like Microsoft is trying to hard, I'm really liking the minimalistic design. A search is supposed to be just that, a quick and simple way to find the information you need. The massive background pictures of landscapes are really distracting, not to mention the fact that they'll probably be a pain for slower connections (does dial up still exist?) to load.

Completely agree. Google's simple search box and search button is what makes Google my preferred engine (that and the long history I have with it).

[megabyteme]

I don't even look at M$ stuff anymore. I use Office and various of their OSs, but have no interest in anything else of theirs. I do not trust them. I think we have seen many reasons to not...

[anon]

does dial up still exist?

Oh yes, it does. There's Opera Turbo for slow connections, but it severely degrades image quality. Fortunately, the trend seems to be making light versions of Web services (Facebook Lite, YouTube Feather).

[Rart]

I've been looking into the Youtube feather beta and I'm actually quite curious as to how it would work. It doesn't seem like there'd be much to cut down... You have some comments and a video, whats to reduce? And the video quality on the original Youtube has already been drastically cut, what else would they do to help low bandwidth users?

[anon]

You have some comments and a video, whats to reduce?

Ranking, subscriptions, related videos, comments... the average user is there just to watch the video, and when you have a slow connection every byte counts.