Bing Activates Facebook Features, Makes Some Changes

Bing announced today that it is completing its deployment of the new Facebook features announced last month. They should be available to all U.S. users.  ...
Bing Activates Facebook Features, Makes Some Changes
Written by Chris Crum
  • Bing announced today that it is completing its deployment of the new Facebook features announced last month. They should be available to all U.S. users. 

    Bing has made some adjustments to the features as originally announced due to user feedback. "Early users told us that they expected the same access to their friends inside Bing as they already have inside Facebook. This surfaced as some dissatisfaction with the way the features were working, specifically people were disappointed when they did not see their friends show up in their searches," says Bing Group Program Manager Paul Yiu. "So we looked for a way to respect the sharing intent you have with your friends inside Facebook, and use that to deliver a similarly powerful experience inside Bing."

    "Assuming you have selected to share information with your friends inside Facebook, you will show up in profile searches in Bing, even if you have selected not to have profile information show up in public search engines," says Yiu. "This is similar behavior to the way Facebook works. It’s important to note that you will not show up in web searches on major search engines including Bing, just in Facebook Profile Searches within Bing conducted by your friends or friends of friends."

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    Additionally, Bing has made it so those with Facebook friends under 18 (but above 13 – the age Facebook requires for a profile) can surface those friends in Bing’s results. Any Facebook user who has the features active can show up in searches for their friends or friends of friends.

    Upon the original announcement of the new features, WebProNews Publisher and iEntry CEO Rich Ord asked if social signals are the new PageRank. What do you think? Share your thoughts here

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