eBay Testing New Search Features
February 20, 2010
eBay said this week it is launching a new offering called "Garden by eBay," an area on the site that will allow members to test new features and provide feedback for improvements and changes.
Garden by eBay is an opt-in initiative with a concept that is similar to Google Labs where users can test and experiment with different features before they are officially released.
eBay says that Garden members' feedback will be provided directly to the teams that manage new, proposed or existing features. The goal is to bring buyers and sellers into the process and help the company introduce, test and roll out features faster.
The first major feature to be introduced is a new "streamlined search" aimed at making it easier to browse and view search results. Streamlined search offers a cleaner view of inventory, and better ways for buyers to browse items. Users can compare auction and Buy It Now listings side-by-side, refine their searches with fewer clicks, get an at-a-glance view of an item's name, price and format and view same-screen pop-up windows for item detail.
"The new Garden by eBay represents a new collaborative conversation with the eBay community-a chance to listen to their thoughts on upcoming features, and to bring them closer to our own innovation process," said Christopher Payne, eBay vice president of search.
"And by seeding the Garden with streamlined search, we're asking for the community's input on improving one of the most important areas of eBay.com."
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Bing Gets a Bunch of New Search Features
December 26, 2009
Update: According to Bing, all of the features that were announced are now live. However, they do not appear to be live yet for me. I am guessing they will be soon at least.
Original Article: Microsoft has announced the addition of a number of new features to its Bing search engine. The company says it has been examining the trends in search and in feedback, and is working to accommodate these. Microsoft is referring to trends like the demand for faster access to knowledge, offering different user interfaces for different kinds of results, and an increased focus on "getting things done" with search.
Would you use Bing more if it added the right features? Talk to ArisYulianta and Friends... what it's missing.
Bing is rolling out a new "task-focused" version of its home page. It looks relatively the same as before, but when you mouse over different categories, you will get more search options. For example, if you mouse over "Travel," you will get links like "find flights" and "find hotels," and you can conduct your search from there.
"There is also an interactive Instant Answer that allows you to enter your origin, destination, travel dates and…click…you are in Bing travel," says Bing Product Manager Henry Hall. "Within Bing travel you have fast access to flight purchase recommendations via the price predictor that tells you the least expensive times to fly. In addition to money, you’ll save time as well with Bing travel’s comprehensive flight listing results and links to top travel sites and airlines."
Bing is also enhancing local information for hundreds of cities looking for things like local attractions, points of interest, neighborhoods and other local information sources like newspaper web sites. Bing has developed enhanced city results, which include links to key information and high-resolution slide shows.
Bing is making it easier to find the preview feature. "We're doing a better job mining things like contact phone numbers and email addresses from web pages and displaying them clearly under a Contact banner, and generally cleaning up the interface to make it easier to decide if this a site you want to visit," says Hall. "Last, we're also integrating images in some preview results. We believe that all these features will allow for a faster decision about whether a site is right for your needs, which means less clicking on your browser’s back button."
Bing has also added a new Event Search feature, which gives users a summary of events for major cities, which can be filtered by things like performances, food & dining, fairs & festivals, music, etc.
Bing has also made it easy to share results for shopping searches on Facebook, a feature Hall deems ideal for passing on holiday gift ideas. There are also better results for health-related searches, including, conditions, medications, and hospitals. Each type of query will return more info and a more organized set of results.
Perhaps the biggest addition to Bing is that of Wolfram Alpha's algorithms and "expertly curated data". Wolfram Alpha will help power Bing's results for nutritional information and math searches.
When users search Bing for specific food items, they will get a nutrition quick tab that shows more information about it and a nutrition facts label at the bottom of the results page.
"Another helpful tool is the body mass index that tracks your workout progress," the Bing Team says. "We have introduced Wolfram|Alpha’s body mass index interactive form on our results page. If you search for ‘bmi’ you’ll get the option to enter your height and weight. Click ‘Calculate’ and you’ll get a detailed Body Mass Index analysis directly on Bing."
Bing will also rely on Wolfraph Alpha's ability to solve complex math functions.
Bing says there will be more new features highlighted on the Bing Search Blog over the next few days. The features are just starting to roll out in the US, so it could be a while before you actually see them.
More on the newly announced features, read this post. For more on Bing's integration with Wolfram Alpha specifically, read here.
Will the addition of new search capabilities increase Bing's market share? Share your thoughts.
Have You Read This?
> Wolfram Alpha Hasn't Exactly Set the World on Fire
Nielsen Also Puts Bing Up In November
December 17, 2009
Earlier today, we relayed comScore's figures for the search market during November 2009. Now, Nielsen's statistics covering the same timespan have been made public, and although both companies agree that Bing did well, a lot of the other details differ.
Whereas comScore believes Google gained a bit of ground on a month-over-month basis, Nielsen indicated that the search giant lost some - 0.7 percent since October, to be exact, landing it with a share of 65.4 percent.
Also, although both firms are convinced that Yahoo slipped, Nielsen puts the loss at just 0.1 percent (to comScore's 0.5 percent). That would leave Yahoo with a market share of 15.3 percent.
Which brings us to Bing. Nielsen's data points to an impressive month-over-month gain of 1.0 percent on Bing's part. comScore thought Bing just increased its standing by 0.4 percent between October and November.
But regardless of what set of information you prefer to go with, Yahoo must now look a little bit less tasty to Microsoft. The real question is whether yet another source (think Hitwise) will confirm this trend, and also if Yahoo and Bing will continue to trade places in the future.
Have You Read This?
> Microsoft Launches Bing iPhone App
> Mozilla Exec Moves To Bing's Corner
> Bing Gets A Bunch Of New Search Features
Microsoft Launches Bing iPhone App
December 16, 2009
Microsoft has launched a Bing app for the iPhone. It's now available for download in the Apple App store.
Of course the iPhone app is not the first mobile experience Bing has offered. There is already Bing for Windows Mobile, BlackBerry, Sidekick and select BREW-based devices on Verizon.
Key features of the iPhone app include:
- Daily image from Bing.com
- Easy to access voice search
- Tips and tricks on the home page
- "Locate Me" functionality
- Ability to add pushpins and save locations
- Show multiple locations on a single map
"Our investments in voice search (you may have played with them on Windows phones or BlackBerry already) continues in our iPhone App and works great for map locations as well as old fashioned web search," says Justin Jed of Bing for mobile. "Just say 'San Francisco weather,' for a quick result, or even say a full address for a map or directions. Try something complex, like '1 Microsoft Way, Redmond 98052.' (Yes, I know how to get to work.) Hold the phone to your ear and speak, or press the mic button—simple."
"Speaking of directions (ha), looking for a coffee shop nearby? Bing automatically finds your location," adds Jed. "It's also easy to discover a new spot by category such as restaurants, banks, theaters and choose whether you want walking or driving directions."
The infinite scrolling of Bing's image search is said to translate well to the iPhones's interface. There are apparently a lot more features that Microsoft isn't going into detail about, as they would rather have you just download the iPhone app and find them for yourself.
There's no word from the company on when an Android app might become available.
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> Microsoft Addresses Search Privacy
> Mozilla Exec Moves To Bing's Corner
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