At a time when competitor Google is focusing intensely on mobile and local, Microsoft's Bing is sharing plans for ad products that would go toward evening the score between the two biggest search players in the U.S. The company will introduce radius targeting for search ads, allowing advertisers to choose a specific five to 100 mile radius around an address. This will be available in all adCenter markets in "the coming months," according to a blog post by Dennis Glavin, the group product manager and lead on local search advertising for Microsoft. Google already offers similar targeting capa [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEM | Microsoft: Bing Ads | Microsoft: Bing Maps & Local | Microsoft: Bing Mobile

According to a tweet from Michael Gartenberg Bing is going to be the default search engine on RIM BlackBerry devices. Apparently Steve Ballmer took the stage at BlackBerry World 2011 and announced that Bing and Bing Maps would be "integrated at the OS level" on BlackBerry handsets coming later this year. Bing for Mobile offers a generally strong user experience and this is an interesting effort at differentiation for RIM (vs. Android and iPhone). However, regardless of whose numbers you consult RIM has been losing smartphone share to Apple and Google over the past year. Below are the [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Microsoft: Bing | Microsoft: Bing Maps & Local | Microsoft: Bing Mobile | Top News

Hot on the heels of last week's Read/Write World effort, Bing Maps has announced another ambitious project that will improve its imagery collection. It's called the Global Ortho Project and the goal is to provide consistent, high resolution (30 cms) imagery across every square inch of the United States and Western Europe by June, 2012. Some major cities and landmarks (like Cowboys Stadium above) already have hi-res imagery but, as any experienced online map user can tell you, the photos often get much worse in smaller towns and cities. No more, Bing says. In a video about the proj [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Local | Features: General | Microsoft: Bing Maps & Local

It's probably not something that you can wrap your head around pretty quickly. It's also not something you can describe in quick, easily digestible terms. "It" is a new Microsoft Bing effort called Read/Write World that has some pretty lofty goals: things like indexing and connecting all of the world's "geo-linked media." And not just indexing and connecting all this media, but also making it easy to use and consume, too, on any platform and type of device. It's stuff like maps, photos, panoramas, movies, business listings -- almost anything that can be tied to a physical location - [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Features: General | Microsoft: Bing Maps & Local | Microsoft: Bing Streetside | Microsoft: Photosynth

Photosynth is one of the many cool-but-underpromoted-and-unknown aspects of the Bing Maps experience. That could change soon thanks to the launch this week of a Photosynth app for iOS devices. With the Photosynth app, users can create panoramic images inside the app -- no additional stitching software required -- and upload them directly into Bing Maps. (Or to Facebook if you prefer.) It looks better than I'm describing it, so watch at about the :20 mark of this Microsoft video to see how the app works. Video: Microsoft Photosynth App – April 2011 If users upload panoramas to Bing M [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Microsoft: Bing Maps & Local | Microsoft: Photosynth

This morning Microsoft is launching the "Bing Business Portal" (BBP). It replaces the the Bing Local Listing Center, and all listings already there have already been migrated over. The BBP allows local business owners or their agents or designated representatives to claim and enhance listings with additional content including deals. Business owners can also add links to Facebook and Twitter. Here's what you can do in the Bing Business Portal: Claim, create, verify, and manage local business listings Identify key search categories where you want your listing to appear Customize l [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Social | Microsoft: Bing | Microsoft: Bing Maps & Local | Microsoft: Bing Mobile | Microsoft: Bing Social Search | Microsoft: Business Issues | Top News

The Pre Central blog offered up some screens from the forthcoming webOS tablet, the HP-Palm TouchPad, which show Bing as the default maps provider on the device. The screens are reportedly authentic because they were obtained from the webOS 3.0 emulator. What this also suggests is that on HP-Palm devices beyond its TouchPad Bing could be the default mapping provider. (HP has a toolbar/default search deal with Microsoft.) Google was the maps application for the initial Palm Pre smartphones. That's not to say that Google Maps won't be accessible on new Palm devices via the internet/mobile [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Google: Maps & Local | Microsoft: Bing | Microsoft: Bing Maps & Local | Microsoft: Bing Mobile

It's reasonable to say that the world of technology patents is screwed up and headed for some major reform. One area in which this is very apparent is location/mapping/geo. There are a number of seemingly conflicting or contradictory local and local-mobile patents that have been issued over the past several years. Some of these patents were issued to small companies and some are owned or were acquired by giants like Google and Microsoft. Now Redmond and Mountain View have joined forces to fight a common foe: a small company in Texas that holds a potentially sweeping mapping patent. T [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Local | Google: Legal | Google: Maps & Local | Legal: Patents | Microsoft: Bing Maps & Local

Bing is introducing a totally redesigned version of its toolbar, called the "Bing Bar." Apparently it has been "rebuilt from the ground up," says Microsoft's Stefan Weitz. Indeed, it operates more like a kind of "dashboard" than a conventional toolbar with links to various sites. And yes, the Bing Rewards loyalty program is still in force. The new toolbar, which is graphically more pleasing to look at than a conventional toolbar, enables users to get lots of different types of information via drop-down windows: news, weather, maps, multiple email accounts, movies, games and so on -- in addi [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Video | Features: General | Microsoft: Bing | Microsoft: Bing Maps & Local | Microsoft: Bing News Search | Microsoft: Bing Videos | Toolbars & Add-Ons

Bing has landed its first deal to provide in-car search capabilities with today's announcement of Toyota Entune at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Entune is Toyota's new navigation system, a combination in-car hardware and mobile phone application that will be available in select Toyota vehicles later this year. Entune features Bing for Mobile (with Bing Maps) as one of its featured apps, giving drivers access to Bing search results via the dashboard's touch screen or by using Bing for Mobile's voice search capabilities. Users will first need to download the Entune app to th [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Google: Cars | Microsoft: Bing Cars | Microsoft: Bing Maps & Local | Microsoft: Bing Mobile | Search Features: Cars | Top News

It looks like the Bing Maps team has been spending a lot of time at the mall lately, because they've gone and mapped out about two dozen US malls -- 19 of which are in Bing's home state of Washington! It's part of a new feature called, obviously, mall maps. It basically takes one of those mall directories you see inside the mall and puts it online via Bing Maps, like this image of the Roosevelt Field Mall in New York state. What's not obvious from the image is that a lot of the individual stores showing there are clickable, and clicking brings up basic contact information, along with a [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Local | Microsoft: Bing Maps & Local

Most businesses tend to focus on the big channels when it comes to local SEO efforts. While it makes sense to optimize your Google Place Page and pay attention to your presence on other big local search services (e.g. Bing Local, CityGrid, DexKnows, Insider pages, Local.com, Merchant circle, Superpages, Yahoo Local, Yellow book, Yelp, YP.com, etc.), because of the fragmented nature of local search, there are plenty of other services that generate great local traffic and can provide you with SEO benefits. Here's a brief overview of some "off the grid" opportunities. Facebook Places. So Fa [...]

Related Topics: Channel: SEO | Foursquare | Google: Maps & Local | Gowalla | Local Search | Microsoft: Bing Maps & Local | Search Engines: Location / Checkin Services | SEO: Local | SEO: Mobile Search | Twitter | Yahoo: Maps & Local | Yelp

Microsoft announced that it has hired CloudeMade and OpenStreetMap (OSM) founder Steve Coast as "Principal Architect for Bing Mobile," as well as a kind of liason to the "open map community." According to data in the Bing post announcing Coast's hiring, there are "more than 320,000 people" who have participated or are participating in the OpenStreetMap project. As part of this new effort, Microsoft is providing Bing Aerial Imagery to OpenStreetMap. Microsoft says that Steve Coast "will help develop better mapping experiences for our customers and partners, and lead efforts to e [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Microsoft: Bing | Microsoft: Bing Maps & Local | Microsoft: Bing Mobile | Top News

Bing has announced a series of updates to the Bing Maps interface, including a very welcome move to make its collection of Map Apps easier to find. Map Apps is a growing collection of tools that expand the capabilities of Bing Maps; some -- like the Taxi Fare Calculator and Parking Finder -- are extremely functional and useful to all, while others appeal to a more limited audience. (Roadside Sculptures, anyone?) Together, the Map Apps helped give Bing Maps what we've previously called the cool crown here on Search Engine Land. But Map Apps were never easy to find; Bing, for some reason, [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Local | Microsoft: Bing Maps & Local | Top News

Get out your slides, this is a great statistic: 53 percent of mobile searches on Bing have a local intent. This was casually told to me yesterday by Microsoft's Stefan Weitz during a briefing call about a dozen other things. I stopped him and made him repeat and confirm the number. He did. It's from Microsoft's internal analysis of their mobile search query data. There are a few other local search numbers floating around that get frequently cited. A big one is Google's "20% of search is related to location." This is a PC-centric estimate by Google that excludes some of the gray areas where [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Local | Google: Maps & Local | Microsoft: Bing | Microsoft: Bing Maps & Local | Microsoft: Bing News Search | Top News

Bing for Android was previously only available on selected Verizon Android handsets. Now, according to Microsoft, it's available to everyone with an Android handset, from the Android market: We are pleased to announce that we have just released the Bing App to all major U.S. mobile operators through Android Markets.  As we highlighted in August, Android users can find the Bing image of the day with clickable hotspots, image search, news, local business listings and reviews, instant answers for movies, flights movies, and more. I just downloaded it and can confirm it's there. There [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Microsoft: Bing | Microsoft: Bing Maps & Local | Microsoft: Bing Mobile

Bing has added a new tool to its Bing Maps App Gallery -- a tool that aims to optimize road trips when you have a lot of places to go at once. The app comes from OnTerra and is called the "RouteSavvy" Route Optimizer. The idea is that, when you have several places to go on a single trip, the Route Optimizer will provide the most efficient route to take. You provide a list of stops and click the "Generate Optimal Route" button and the app starts optimizing. It's designed for driving trips, but the above is a real-life walking example. The McGee family was in Seattle last weekend and [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Local | Microsoft: Bing Maps & Local

Get in, get out. That's the idea behind the new Windows Phones: get access to content quickly and "get back to your life." Personalization and simplicity are also key themes of the new Microsoft mobile experience, which officially launched this morning with speeches from Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and AT&T Mobility CEO Ralph de la Vega. Without mentioning Apple or Android, de la Vega lauded Windows Phones as offering a "breakthrough experience"  . . .  "unlike anything you've ever seen." As the iPhone heads to other US carriers (i.e., Verizon) AT&T is shifting its focus to embrac [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Google: Mobile | Microsoft: Bing | Microsoft: Bing 411 | Microsoft: Bing Maps & Local | Microsoft: Bing Mobile | Top News

Bing announced they have released a new version of their iPhone app that has better travel and mapping features. The travel feature now takes advantage of their Farecast acquisition, where you can now get Bing flight price predictions on your iPhone. The price predictions let you know if you should buy or wait to buy a specific airline ticket. The second update is about making the maps on the iPhone app easier to read and see. The backdrop information now pops up, the font size has been increased, added a nearby feature and easy map switching. Here are some pictures: [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile | Microsoft: Bing Maps & Local | Microsoft: Bing Mobile | Microsoft: Bing Travel

Bing has announced they have added transit directions in 11 cities. Transit directions can be used to determine the best way to get from point A to point B via bus, subway, or local rail. Bing released this feature for Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New Jersey, New York City, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Seattle, Washington DC, and Vancouver and promises to keep adding more and more over time. If you go to Bing Maps in one of those 11 cities, you should see a new directions icon. The directions icon shows a bus, which means all "transit" options. By clicking that option, [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Local | Microsoft: Bing Maps & Local