Bing Gears Up For 2016 Elections: Launches Candidate Pages, Political Index & Timeline

Ahead of Google, Bing has launched 2016 election-related search results with a variety of voter resources, including presidential candidate pages, a timeline for the upcoming election events and the new Bing Political Index (BPI).

[blockquote cite = “Bing Search Blog”]When you search on election topics, you’ll see in-depth candidate pages coupled with a unique tool called the Bing Political Index. This is the first of several 2016 election experiences we plan to bring you this year.[/blockquote]

Bing searches for “2016 elections,” “presidential election” and “presidential race” all returned the following “Election 2016” box, where users can click on the “Bing Political Index,” “Candidates” and “Timeline” without leaving the search results page.

According to Bing, its new political index was built by the Bing Predicts team and offers insight on a candidate’s platform based on search and social data, along with analysis from Ontheissues.org.

“BPI assigns a candidate score and a public score for ten of the key issues that shape the 2016 election cycle: education, environmental issues, tax reform, abortion, gun control, immigration reform, drug policy, LGBT rights, healthcare and Social Security,” explains the Bing Search blog.

Bing says its BPI information is dynamic and will be updated monthly to reflect where each candidate stands. It also includes a “My BPI” survey where users can determine which candidate most closely aligns with their political leanings.

The Bing 2016 election timeline tracks upcoming events like debate dates and the primary voting schedule, along with other election milestones.