Redmond, Washington — Microsoft has garnered some new weapons to its arsenal in its battle against rival Google. The Redmond Vole earlier this week announced that it will be introducing several updates to its Bing search engine including Quick Tabs, an Answer box, and new mapping tools powered by Foursquare to deliver real-time data embedded in maps, in an attempt to break into Google’s dominant position in the space.
Microsoft demonstrated the Foursquare and a slew of other features at the Search Engine Strategies (SES) New York conference in a speech by Yusuf Mehdi, senior vice president of the Online Audience Business in Microsoft’s Online Services division.
Foursquare empower users to enlist their location through their cellphones, share it with their friends and win the title of “mayor” of a specific location. At the SXSW conference, for example, it became a popular way for attendees to meet up with friends and find program schedule each day.
With the Bing Map integration, users will be able to reap benefit of the search-engine maps to see where their friends are checking in on Foursquare. The screenshot below displays a map of the Queen Anne neighborhood in Seattle.
According to Microsoft, its study has established that 42% of all Bing queries require some improvement for users to find exactly what they are looking for. Currently, Bing offers a “Quick Tabs” window to the left of results page to help users grab the content that might in some way relate to their query. And although Microsoft claims the feature has been popular, it thinks it can do better.
Microsoft intends to experiment with the new Bing designs “over the next few months” that will move the Quick Tabs window to the top of the search page. The company hopes that the alteration will help users “make quicker, more informed decisions.”
Todd Schwartz, a Bing engineer who blogged about the new feature in the Bing Community blog, wrote the goal is “to give customers a real time sense of what is going on as they plan activities in their own neighborhoods or while on the road.”
One of Bing’s essential focuses is on real-time data. Currently, the search engine allows users see the latest tweets and Facebook status updates on a particular subject. In order to make real-time data a more penetrating part of its search, Microsoft said that it will begin testing better availability of real-time results. Bing will also start offering real-time content, such as the “most popular shared links,” from other sites around the Web.
Bing asserts that the move represents a further departure from Google-style listing of search results and one toward what it calls a “decision engine” where Bing can intuitively deliver exactly the price, link, score, or weather forecast you are looking for.
The changes, however, does not indicate the introduction of new under-the-hood search technology. Rather, Bing representatives say, it is re-jiggering the way search results are delivered — hopefully in a more intuitive way. Bing says it will unfurl all the new features in the coming month with only a small percentage of users seeing updates this week. The Foursquare feature starts rolling out today to all Bing Map users.
Although as exciting as the updates might appear for some Bing users, the impact they will have on search market share will probably be minimal. According to market-research firm comScore, Google devours more than 65% search market share, while Bing has captured just over 11% of the market.
A few updates to design or functionality probably would not suffice for the company to gain significant ground. Historically, catching up to a dominant search provider takes a long time. In other words, Microsoft is facing an uphill battle in search that probably would not be ending anytime soon.