Redmond, Washington — Software maker Microsoft search engine Bing earlier this year, launched Bing Deals, a one-stop shop full of all the daily deals on offer at any given moment from across the web in Bing. Over the weekend, the company announced some new features to go along with that as it is dipping its toe into the daily deals space as well — as an aggregator.
Appealing to sophisticated shoppers who may have swelled up their inboxes with numerous deals, the search engine is taking a “decision engine” approach to the coupon world. The Redmond, Wash.-based company on Friday unleashed Bing Deals, a Website that aggregates more than 200,000 of the best deals from local deals providers Groupon and LivingSocial, as well as offers from retailers such as Nordstrom and Target.
The market for daily deals, in which companies solicit retailers, restaurants and other businesses to offer special offers of 50 percent off or more to consumers, seemed to crop up all of a sudden from out of nowhere to become huge business. The latest fad for offering consumers a one-off deal is now so popular that the number of sites and vendors offering them has spiraled out of control.
On the one hand this is a very significant news for bargain-hunters, who now have a vast range of deals to choose from on a daily basis. But on the other it can be a nightmare trying to sort our the deals sufficiently to sort the chaff from the wheat. But, the Bing Deals service is touting its visual search results as a differentiating factor from other sites that culls together sale items and coupon listings.
Microsoft, rather than imitating so many other big companies have or are doing, tried to build their own daily deals service. But realizing that would only double the confusion, the company has decided to play aggregator instead. Lisa Gurry from The Bing Team states:
“People are telling us if they can end the unwelcome egg hunt, they would welcome the savings,” noted Bing team member Lisa Gurry. “When asked, 87% of people said they would increase their use of daily deals if they could find only deals that interest them all in one place.”
With the launch of Bing Deals, we are doing just that.
“Instead of formulating another program, we are combining deals from major providers and retailers, including Groupon, LivingSocial, Nordstrom, Target and many others, to help you refine through the clutter and find the best deals in one central location. Now you have a place to browse, find and purchase.”
First off is the Deals hub. “Previously deals were appeared within Local results so you did not have one place to go find deals in your area or a way to sort,” a representative informed WebProNews. “With the Bing Deals hub, there is a one stop shop for the more than 200,000 deals from across the web, local daily deals, and exclusive deals only found in Bing.”
“And those exclusive deals only found in Bing are also new,” he adds. “Deals on mobile via m.bing.com (RIM, iPhone, Android) have had a hub-like page since its launch in March, but with this update the new inclusions are the exclusive and local deals. Although not similar, Deals on mobile is optimized to surface local deals based on the person’s location — simply clicking on the ‘Locate Me’ button, people can find the best deals in their current location.”
Besides, the number of discount sites aggregated on Bing Deals includes The Dealmap (recently acquired by Google), Groupon, Living Social, Tippr, Zozi, and Gilt City, as well as retailers such as Target, Nordstrom, Macy’s, Staples, Fossil, and Zappos also included in the bundle. You can now find the best deals all in one place without the need to browse multiple different sites or the need to plow through hundreds of emails.
Moreover, Bing Deals enables you to sift through more than 200,000 deals across the U.S. by retailer, location, keywords, or category, with all the necessary information delivered back to you via visual search results. Bing also takes advantage of its close Facebook association and includes a feature that also enables users to anchor their FB profiles to its shopping service to remind you when friends’ birthdays are coming up.
Nevertheless, Microsoft is hardly trekking a new trail here. Bing Deals enters a market of aggregation rivals that includes Yipit, Savings.com and even carrier T-Mobile, which launched a mobile deals app called More For Me.
Gurry promised more “money-saving features” and deals will roll out over the coming weeks.