Redmond, Washington — Bing has recently unfurled a new feature that seems to be something between a business directory and a content aggregator. Editors at Microsoft’s Bing search engine are now curating content to help users find answers to common queries with the launch of a new feature dubbed as “Editors’ Picks,” which it describes as a “guide to great sites,” aimed at helping consumers find relevant sites hand picked by Bing editors.
The software behemoth has just introduced Bing Editors’ Picks, which is basically a limited version of the Yahoo Directory or Open Directory Project, offering hand-picked Web sites that its staff thinks Net searchers will be most keen to see.
“Our goal, whether delivered by algorithm or by editors, is to help you find what you are looking for faster and to get stuff done,” wrote Kristen Kennedy, managing editor for the Bing Editorial Team, on a blog post this morning.
Here is a picture of the Bing Editors Picks section:
{japopup type=”iframe” content=”images/stories/demo/2011/nov/editors_picks-big.jpg” width=”1024″ height=”600″}
{/japopup}
They let you browse the categories and view sites that Bing editors find to be useful within the category. This move comes months after Google pulled off their Google Directory, telling people that searching the web is the best and fastest way to find what you are looking for.
“Editors’ Picks are small collections of relevant sites that our online editorial experts think will be useful to you, but may not always make it to the top of the search results page,” says Kennedy, of Bing’s Editorial Team.
The results suggested by editors are categorized according to industry–featuring everything from education and event planning to shopping and hobbies. While many of the listings are ecommerce businesses, a number of the top sites have a combination of related products and effective content marketing.
For instance, one of the foremost sites in the “party planning” category is Celebrations.com. Its homepage prominently features a CTA asking visitors to “hire a party professional,” as well as a number of recent headlines from its party-planning blog. When visitors click a headline, such as the site’s “Pumpkin Parfait” post categorized under “Thanksgiving and Christmas Recipe Ideas,” they are brought to an article offering tips on how to create this confection for their own parties. The page also features related Thanksgiving decorations that readers might be interested in purchasing.
{japopup type=”iframe” content=”images/stories/demo/2011/nov/celebrationscom-big.jpg” width=”1024″ height=”600″}
{/japopup}
Basically, it is a human-edited directory with a very limited number of listings. At the same time, however, the “Editors’ Picks” results become available via a tab for relevant queries. For instance, if you search “tech conferences,” you will get the tab as an option, and then be able to view the listings.
“The job of Bing editors is to enhance your experience on Bing,” she adds. “For example, when we know you are looking for something really specific — like ‘How to use a semicolon’ or ‘Free clip art’ — we will provide a list of editorially selected sites on that specific topic (in addition to our algorithmic results) to help you find what you are looking for faster.”
However, currently, there are 140 topics Bing is featuring editors’ picks for. They are open to suggestions for more topics. Further, Bing also said that for people who want to be added to Editors’ Picks, they should email PicksChat@microsoft.com.