Redmond, Washington — Microsoft’s Bing search engine has just unleashed a new feature for Bing Social, which now recommends users to follow on Twitter, based on your search queries, calling the new feature People Recommendation.
Simply enter a query, and it will give you three users it thinks you might like to follow based on that query. In selecting account suggestions, Bing evaluates a variety of factors about its author, such as influence, popularity and knowledge about the topic in question, Microsoft said Monday.
Bing Social’s Mike Ching and Shubha Nabar described “People Recommendation” further on the Bing Search Blog:
With Twitter reaching out to more than 145 million users, finding fascinating people to follow can be difficult. People Recommendation on Bing Social helps you discover interesting and relevant Twitter users based on your searches.
The representatives for Bing further said, “It was developed to help consumers identify the most influential people to watch on Twitter, based on their specific interests. It is currently available within Bing Social, appearing in the right-hand panel of your screen.”
Alternatively, if someone is “Influential” and helps shape the discussions or “Popular” like a celebrity, the new Twitter User Recommendation element helps to identify Twitterers related to your query. For instance, if you search for “Windows Phone,” you will view Bing Social recommend some influential folks, helping you link more deeply to the issues you care about by using this social layer of search to inform your results and give you the information you need, describes the representatives.
This newly released element should be somewhat useful for the casual Bing user, who actually goes to the Bing Social site, as the feature does not appear to be integrated with regular Bing search, at least at this point.
Also, if you enter search query for the mega-hit film Machete, Bing returns Machete stars Jessica Alba and Lindsay Lohan, as well as the official Machete Twitter account.
Twitter has been doing a lot recently to enhance user discoverability. The company probably appreciates this Bing feature. This attribute is the latest for Bing in the increasingly popular area of social search. Search engines large and small are scrambling to help users sort through the massive amount of pointless drivel in social media services and find relevant, valuable information. Social media pundits often refer to this challenging process as finding the “signals” within the “noise.”
After a few questions, the Bing reps explained, “I do not have anything else to share about future social features/functions (deals with networks like FB, results appearing in main search results page, etc), but there will be more to come in the social arena as this latest feature is a continuation of Microsoft’s aim is to develop solutions to use real-time content to augment traditional web search technology.”
Other search providers engaged in this sector include Google, Microsoft’s search partner Yahoo, as well as social search specialists like OneRiot and Wink.
Microsoft did not immediately respond to a request for comment.