Microsoft and Facebook are sharing, partnering, a set of new social search features through Bing. The features will also start Web results on Facebook powered by Bing.
One new feature, Liked Results, displays the Websites and links “liked” by a Facebook user’s friends. If you search in Bing for “Halo: Reach,” for example, your friends’ Facebook profile images will appear next to certain results. “So, you can lean on friends to figure out the best Websites for your search,” per October 13th post on Facebook Blog.
The other new feature, Facebook Profile Search, factors into searches for specific people. In response to a search request for a particular name-e.g., “John Smith”-Bing will now leverage a user’s Facebook connections to deliver more relevant results. “Those with whom you have mutual friends will now show up first,” The Facebook Blog. “Bing is also making more prominent the ability to add these people as friends on Facebook directly from Bing.”
“We’re hard-wired so that information about people is the most interesting information we track in the world,” CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
“We think it’s time for a real, robust, persistent social signal,” Satya Nadella, senior vice president of Microsoft’s Online Services Division-posted the 13th of October on Bing Community Blog.
In the U.S., launch is scheduled over the next few weeks.
