WebProNews

Microsoft Takes Users Behind Bing

Microsoft has launched a new site for Bing, where users can go to find out the latest features that have been implemented into the search engine (excuse me, "decision engine"). The site's called Behind Bing.

Bing Gets a Bunch of New Search Features

Update: According to Bing, all of the features that were announced are now live. However, they do not appear to be live yet for me. I am guessing they will be soon at least.

Yahoo Showing Tweets for News Results

Yahoo Search is now including a new Twitter feature in search results for select topics that are in the news. For example, if you search for "health care reform," or "obama," you will get a section for news results, which contains tabs for news, photos, videos, and Twitter. The results look something like this:

Some Bing Users Seeing Latest Posts on Publisher Searches

Bing appears to be either testing or rolling out a new feature for news sites in its search results. The feature brings up a few of the most recent posts from a news source, when that source itself is the query. I say this is either a test or a gradual roll out, because it is not happening in my own searches. TechCrunch has a piece about the feature (and a screenshot), which shows it, so evidently some people have it.

LinkedIn, Microsoft Outlook To Forge Ties

Heavy users of LinkedIn and Microsoft Outlook will soon have to do a lot less tab-toggling.  Microsoft has introduced something called the Outlook Social Connector, and early next year, LinkedIn will become the first networking site to support it.

Yahoo and Microsoft May Be Close to Signing

Kara Swisher of Boomtown, who is normally a pretty reliable source of industry scoops, is reporting that Yahoo and Microsoft may be very close to finally signing their much-anticipated search and advertising deal.

Major Companies Endorse Legal Agreement For Open Standards

Sharing open source software just got a whole lot easier.  The Open Web Foundation has announced the availability of the Open Web Foundation Agreement, and some huge corporations - namely Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo - have given the arrangement their figurative seal of approval.

Facebook and Twitter Now on Xbox 360

Update 2: Sony's Playstation 3 is also Now integrating with Facebook. Update: Facebook officially announced the integration of Facebook and Xbox today: We're excited that beginning today the social game experience is coming to Xbox Live, so now you can play Xbox games with your Facebook friends...

Microsoft Bing Goes Live In The UK

Microsoft has officially launched the UK version of its search engine Bing, taking it out of beta where it has been since late May. During the past several months of beta testing, the Bing team has been working on making its search features more relevant for UK users. "Bing is ready for the UK consumer, with our revolutionary way of searching the Internet proving very popular," said Ashley Highfield, vice president of Microsoft UK's Consumer and Online Business.

Google Makes Improvements to Movie Showtime Searches

Google has launched some new improvements to its movie showtimes search feature. These include more movie pages, genre filters, and a new map view. If you search for a movie and click the "more theaters" link in the showtimes listing, you will be taken to a more thorough page about that movie, including more showtimes, reviews, trailers, photos, etc. You can also see a list of new genre filters to search by on the left-hand side of the screen.