The Kentucky Derby is a huge deal for Louisville, Kentucky, with all sorts of people who would otherwise never visit flying in and spending lots of cash. And the Derby’s at least a noteworthy event for Bing, too, with the folks behind Microsoft’s "decision engine" preparing some special instant answers.
At the time of writing, Google and Yahoo aren’t offering anything similar, which could give Bing a nice edge. Even if people don’t make a permanent change, they may switch search engines for a day knowing that they’ll get more relevant results.
As for what, exactly, Bing’s doing to mark the Derby, a post on the Bing Search Blog explained this week, "If you are looking for the Kentucky Derby details Bing provides an instant answer that will give you the information to the event as well as some useful links to the race contenders, tickets, and fashion."
The post also suggested, "Make sure to check back after the race for the instant answers with all the race results as well."
It should be interesting to see if what’ve been described as the greatest two minutes in sports do Bing any good.