Bing goes live in Britain

 

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By Barry Collins

Posted on 1 Jun 2009 at 08:43

Microsoft has opened its new search service, Bing, to British users.

Bing launched in the US last week, but British visitors to the site were - until today - met with a "coming soon" screen.

The service is now up and running, although not all of the features of the new search engine have yet been switched on over here.

For instance, the company will be integrating results from the Caio shopping engine into its main search results from Wednesday. Microsoft claims this will provide up-to-date prices from thousands of online retailers and consumer reviews of the products searched for.

Microsoft claims other improvements will be made to Bing's British search facilities over the coming year. "Bing is being built in the UK over the next six to 12 months based on consumer insight and is designed to help people find the shortest distance from their initial search query to the point of making an informed decision," claims Microsoft's Paul Stoddart, UK search lead.

For now, the most prominent new features are the related search options, which appear in the left-hand margin of search result pages. Type "Dell laptop" into the search box, for instance, and related searches include options to download drivers and buy parts for Dell laptops.

Bing also offers elongated text previews of sites, so that you can get a better feel for what's on a page before you click the search result. The previews are accessed by hovering over the vertical bar with the yellow dot that appears next to search results.

For a better feel of how Bing might develop, click on the United Kingdom link in the top right-hand corner of the page and select United States English.