New York — World’s leading software monopolists Microsoft Corporation has just taken the wraps off its Bing app for iPad, by updating it in style. The update this week presents more than 100 new features and improvements, but one particular feature that makes this update stand out, which aims to ditch the need to use Apple’s built-in copy-and-paste method is the brand new “Lasso” feature!
A new magic tool dubbed “Lasso,” lets users circle a word while reading, the gesture has users drawing their finger around any word or words on a Web page and have Bing search for that phrase for you, rather than highlighting, copying and pasting them into a search bar.
Microsoft’s new “Lasso” feature lets you circle a word or group of words to start a search with them. (Credit: Microsoft)
In a blog post revealing the new feature, Bing group program manager Tony Chor says that “numerous searches” begin from pages users are on while browsing the Web, and that this feature facilitates that behavior from within the Bing iPad application. The data behind that claim is that users can save up to nine steps with Lasso compared with having to use Apple’s copy-and-paste method, Chor said.
This saves the user a step or two in executing a search. That compared with highlighting those same words with a tap, drag, and button press using iOS’ built-in copy-and-paste tool, or manually typing them into the search box.
The post further reads: “In April we introduced Bing for iPad and needless to say, we were humbled by the positive response we received. In the first three months, we had more than 5,000 ratings in the App Store and an average score of 4.7 stars (out of five stars). But what we really liked was all the great feedback on areas to improve and features to add.”
Rather than use your finger to draw a circle around the words you want to search, you drag the magic lasso, which grows larger and ropes in the words you want. Users who are accustomed with painting or design software will pick it up quickly, as it works nearly the same way as in any major application, like Adobe Photoshop or Illustrator.
Thus, when Bing’s search engine recognizes that you have circled some words, it highlights everything in the circle, puts a checkmark next to the terms, and then automatically slides to launch a new window, where it shows you the search results. It works quickly, which means if you have made an error, you have to swipe back to the previous page after the initial results are shown.
Although the feature is not as miraculous as it sounds on paper, but it is still a considerable step in the right direction for a more innovative user interface design on the Apple iPad. Though, what is interesting is how seriously Microsoft is taking the iPad.
In its blog post that disclosed the update to Bing for iPad it is obvious that the company has been sincerely dedicating its time: “Today, it can be somewhat painful to search on a tablet when you are engaged in reading something; just copying and pasting pieces of text from a webpage to a search box can take up to nine steps on the iPad.”
Bing’s iPad lasso — a simple concept that only needed to be implemented — just goes to show that user interface designs for the iPad are still in their infancy, despite a reported 100,000 apps in the App Store.
Along with the Lasso feature, the company’s other updates to the application are minor and let users go back to see the past week’s worth of Bing home page images, as well as see multiple days worth of movie showtime listings at once.
You can grab the app here.
And just for fun, the following clip shows off the Lasso tool: