In this article, we will explore one of the most popular news sources on the internet: Bing News. We will look at its history, functions, advantages and disadvantages, implementation strategies, and more.
We will also discuss issues that have arisen from people’s reactions to the platform, such as privacy concerns and dissatisfaction with the algorithms used to curate stories. Through these topics, we will gain an understanding of how Bing News works and why it remains a prominent source of digital news.
Short Summary
Bing News is a news aggregator and search engine owned by Microsoft, providing features such as localized searches, third-party integration, Windows 8 integration, and Bing Rewards. It has faced criticism for regional censorship, performance issues, and allegedly copying Google's results. Microsoft has taken steps to ensure it provides a unique search experience.
What Is Bing News?
Bing News is a news aggregator that provides comprehensive news results from various sources. It is owned and operated by Microsoft, and is considered the third largest search engine globally. Bing News is a web search engine that offers features for intelligent and focused news retrieval on the web. It allows users to search through websites, images, videos, news, and more. Its search results are powered by Google, but it also uses its own internal image search algorithms to generate relevant search results.
The new search engine was first released in 1998 as MSN Search and was later upgraded to Windows Live Search in 2004. In 2009, Microsoft rebranded its search engine as Bing. Since then, Bing News has become a popular search engine with a variety of features, such as third-party integration, integration with Windows 8, Translator, Knowledge, Action Graph, and Bing Predicts. It is localized for many countries and is the default search engine for Verizon Wireless.
In addition, Microsoft has invested heavily in promoting Bing's search features, such as the Bing Bar, Bing Rewards program, and Bing search app. Bing News was first released in 1998 as MSN Search and has since become an important part of Microsoft's search offerings.
MSN Search
MSN Search was a dedicated search engine launched by Microsoft in 1999, which has now been replaced by Bing. It was initially powered by Inktomi, a search engine provider, and Picsearch, an image search provider. MSN Search also provided its search results to other search engine portals. In early 1999, MSN Search blended the search results of Inktomi with those of AltaVista, before switching back to the Inktomi search engine.
Microsoft upgraded its crawler in November 2004 and launched a beta program in November 2004. MSN Search was officially out of beta in February 2005, and Picsearch continued to power MSN Search's image search. At the same time, rival Yahoo! Search developed its own crawler in 2003. It was a major milestone for the company.
MSN Search had its own custom search engines and webmaster services, which allowed users to generate search queries and get regular Bing searches. It also had its own image search engine, which allowed users to search for images and photos on the web. MSN Search was eventually replaced by the third iteration, Live Search, in 2006.
In this section, we have looked at the history of MSN Search and how it evolved into Bing News.
Windows Live Search
Windows Live Search was the second iteration of MSN Search, which was released in November 2004. It was a web search engine that allowed users to search through websites, images, videos, news, and more. Microsoft also used its own custom search engines to provide search results. The search engine also provided its search results to other search engine portals.
It was also the default search provider for Verizon Wireless. Live Search had many search categories. It included web, news, images, music, desktop, local and Microsoft Encarta. It also had its own image search engine and its own local search engine. In addition, it had its own image search provider and its own product search, called Bing Shopping.
Microsoft also provided search deals to users through its Bing Rewards program. Live Search was eventually replaced by the third iteration, Live Search, in 2006.
Live Search
Live Search was the predecessor of Bing News and was developed by Microsoft to compete with Google. It was released in 2006 and was the first search engine to be powered by Microsoft's own search engine results. The search engine had its own custom search engines and allowed users to search through websites, images, videos, news, and more. In addition, it had its own image search engine and its own local search engine. It also had a Live Search Maps gadget, as well as its own product search, called Bing Shopping. Microsoft also provided search deals to users through its Bing Rewards program.
Furthermore, the search engine had its own image search provider and its own local search engine. Live Search also introduced features such as a listing of search suggestions while queries were entered, a list of related searches based on semantic technology from Powerset, and an online product search. However, following the launch of Bing in 2009, Microsoft removed the Live Search gadgets from Windows Live Gallery, and the Live Search gadget was renamed to Bing Search Gadget. Shortly after, Live Search Macros became unavailable, and Live Product Upload was discontinued.
In addition, Microsoft made a joint release of "Firefox with Bing" with Mozilla Firefox, and donated $2,500 to help clean up the Gulf oil spill each time Colbert mentioned the word "Bing" on air. Furthermore, Microsoft and Yahoo! Bing and Yahoo! announced a deal. The agreement will see Bing powering Yahoo! Search in July 2009. However, this deal was later altered in 2015 to require Yahoo! Bing should be used for a large proportion of searches. This is often referred to as a "majority" of searches.
Live Search was eventually rebranded as Bing News and is now a popular search engine with a variety of features. It has a host of features such as third-party integration, integration with Windows 8, Translator, Knowledge, and Action Graph, and Bing Predicts. It is localized for many countries and is the default search engine for Verizon Wireless. In addition, Microsoft has invested heavily in promoting Bing's search features, such as the Bing Bar, Bing Rewards program, and Bing search app.
Rebrand as Bing
In 2009, Microsoft rebranded its search engine as Bing. The name was chosen for its memorable and short length, easy to spell, and would function well as a URL around the world. Microsoft wanted to find the perfect name for its new search engine, and so they hired Interbrand - a branding consultancy - to help them. They felt that Interbrand's expertise would be invaluable in making an informed decision. The word "Bing" was ultimately chosen over the original proposed name "Bang" for the same reasons the name Bing was chosen.
In June 3, 2009, the name "Live Search" was officially replaced by Bing. Microsoft and Yahoo!, then the two largest search engines, announced a deal in July 2009 in which Bing would power Yahoo! Search. Two years later, in early 2012, all Yahoo! Search global customers and partners transitioned to Bing. On June 10, 2013, Google was dropped as Apple's web search engine in favor of Bing.
Bing News was released with a host of features that set it apart from its predecessors. It has a third-party integration feature that allows users to search through websites, images, videos, news, and more. It also has an integration with Windows 8, Translator, Knowledge, Action Graph, and Bing Predicts. Bing also searches users' social networks for information relevant to the search query. Furthermore, Microsoft has invested heavily in promoting Bing's search features, such as the Bing Bar, Bing Rewards program, and Bing search app.
Bing is localized for many countries and is the default search engine for Verizon Wireless. Microsoft also provided search deals to users through its Bing Rewards program. Bing News has become a popular search engine, and is now the third largest search engine globally.
What Does Bing News Do?
Bing News is a news aggregator powered by artificial intelligence that collects news articles from various sources. It is owned and operated by Microsoft and is the third-largest search engine globally. Bing News searches users’ social networks, allowing them to conduct searches that go far beyond traditional web search functions. It also provides search suggestions to help users refine their search results. Bing News is available on the Bing homepage, as a search app for iOS and Android devices, and through enterprise streams such as the Outlook News Connector, PowerBI, and Bing for business. The Bing Bar, a tool that links to Outlook.com, Skype, and Facebook, and provides quick links to news and weather, is also available for desktop browsers. Bing 411, a voice-activated search service, is available in the United States.
In addition to its traditional web search functions, Bing News offers a variety of features and services, such as Web Slices, Accelerators, and Groove Music integration. Web Slices allow users to receive updates on current news stories, while Accelerators provide quick access to results from other search engines, such as Wikipedia and YouTube. The integration with Groove Music allows users to play music using the Windows 8-integrated Groove Music application. The Bing Mobile application provides a great convenience to users. It enables one to search for whatever they wish on their mobile devices. Bing Publisher Network broadens the availability of Bing News to new services. These services include Bing News, Bing.com, Windows 10's Cortana, Outlook News Connector, and the Bing search app on iOS and Android. Additionally, the Bilingual Viewer displays translated text with synchronized highlights, scrolling, and navigation.
Bing. News also provides users with a powerful search engine that offers a variety of features to help them find the information they need. It has been slower than some of its competitors in indexing websites, but the team has worked to address this issue by introducing Webmaster Services Bing, which helps webmasters submit content and monitor their sites’ performance. Additionally, the Bing team has added a number of features to the search engine since its initial launches, such as smart labels, publisher logos, and fact-check tags, all of which are designed to help users find relevant search results. Bing also allows users to report adult content, which is then filtered out in future searches.
Bing News provides users with a comprehensive search experience that combines traditional web search functions with a variety of features and services that make it easier for users to find relevant information. With its wide range of language support and integration with Windows 8, Bing News is a great tool for users to access information in a variety of ways.
Third-Party Integration
Third-party integration is the process of connecting two or more applications that are developed by different companies using an external platform. This process allows businesses to extend their services to other companies and build new products and services faster than they would be able to do on their own. Bing News supports this process with its API, which allows developers to submit queries and retrieve results from the Bing engine. The Bing Firefox add-on also allows users to access search suggestions from Bing directly in their browser.
By utilizing third-party integration, Bing News is able to extend its services to other applications, websites, and services, such as Ecosia, a search engine that donates its profits to planting trees. Additionally, Bing News also provides users with access to a variety of Accelerators, which allow users to access the internet from selected text on a webpage. This feature is integrated with iOS 7 and higher, as well as the Bing Bar, which allows users to link to Outlook.com, Skype, and Facebook, and view current local weather forecasts and stock market positions.
This allows businesses to quickly add features and tools to their processes that might take many months to develop on their own.
Integration with Windows 8
Integration with Windows 8 is a feature of Bing News that allows users to access a variety of features and applications built into the Windows 8 operating system. This includes the file manager, calculator, alarm clock, and Xbox Music integration. It also allows users to sign in with their Microsoft account for added security.
The integration with Windows 8 was first introduced in October 2011, when the Microsoft team began working on a new back-end search infrastructure, code-named Tiger, which was designed to provide faster and slightly more relevant search results. This infrastructure was later used to create Bing's own image search, which provides internal image search algorithms, as well as its own image search provider, which is used to provide relevant search results.
The integration with Windows 8 also allows users to access a variety of accelerators, which provide quick access to results from other search engines, such as Wikipedia and YouTube. Additionally, the integration with Groove Music allows users to play music using the Windows 8-integrated Groove Music application.
The integration with Windows 8 is an important part of the Bing News experience and provides users with access to powerful search features and services. With its integration with Windows 8, Bing News provides users with a comprehensive search experience that includes a variety of features and applications.
Translator
Bing Translator is a feature that allows users to translate text from one language to another. It can be accessed via an app on both iOS and Android devices, or through software. Additionally, it includes features such as offline language packs and camera translation. September 2020 marks an important milestone in the journey of Bing Translator. It now supports translations into 70 languages!
The translator feature allows users to enter text in any language, and then translate the text into the desired language. The user can also select from a variety of other languages that are available. Additionally, the translator feature provides users with search suggestions to help them refine their search results.
The Bing Translator API allows developers to submit queries and retrieve results from the Bing Engine. Additionally, the Bing Firefox add-on enables users to add search suggestions to the Firefox search box from Bing. The Bing Bar, which is available for desktop browsers, displays current local weather forecasts and stock market positions.
Bing Translator is a great tool for users to access information in a variety of languages. It offers a variety of features, such as search suggestions and language packs, that make it easier for users to find the information they need. Additionally, the Bing Translator API enables developers to submit queries and retrieve results from the Bing Engine. With its wide range of language support, Bing Translator is a great tool for users to access information in a variety of languages.
Knowledge and Action Graph
The Knowledge and Action Graph is a powerful feature of Bing News that uses artificial intelligence to provide users with relevant information. It is made up of two components: an index of 20 billion related facts and a set of 1 billion instances. Microsoft claimed that the Knowledge and Action Graph was created to help users find information faster and allow them to take informed action.
The Knowledge and Action Graph provides users with a variety of features to help them find relevant information. For instance, users can search for facts, images, and videos, as well as conduct searches on Bing Maps. The Knowledge and Action Graph also provides users with search suggestions and offers a variety of filters to refine their search results. Additionally, it allows users to search for entities, such as people, places, and events, and provides them with related information about those entities.
The Knowledge and Action Graph is also integrated with the Bing search engine, allowing users to access the Knowledge and Action Graph from within the search engine. Additionally, Microsoft released an API called the Knowledge and Action API, which corresponds to Google’s Knowledge Graph. The API allows developers to access the Knowledge and Action Graph’s data and create applications that use the data.
The Knowledge and Action Graph is a powerful tool that helps users get the most out of their Bing News experience. It provides them with a variety of features to help them find relevant information, as well as search suggestions and filters to refine their search results. Additionally, its integration with the Bing search engine and its API enable developers to access its data and create applications that make use of the data.
Bing Predicts
Bing Predicts is a project by Microsoft that uses machine learning and data analysis to predict outcomes of events such as sporting events and elections. It has been highly accurate in predicting outcomes of events such as American Idol and NFL games, with the prediction accuracy for American Idol at 80% and for The Voice at 85%. It has also received positive press coverage for its successes, such as a Business Insider story on its successes and a PC World article on how Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella did well in his March Madness bracket entry.
Bing Predicts is powered by Bing’s search engine, which uses its internal image search algorithms to find relevant search results. Bing’s search engine is the third largest search engine globally and is owned and operated by Microsoft. Bing’s search engine has been slower than some of its competitors in indexing websites, but the team has worked to address this issue by introducing Webmaster Services Bing, which helps webmasters submit content and monitor their sites’ performance. Additionally, the Bing team has made a number of changes to its search engine, such as adding smart labels, publisher logos, and fact-check tags, which are designed to help users find relevant search results.
Bing Predicts has also been used to predict the results of the 2016 United States presidential primaries, with an accuracy rate of 81%. However, the service failed to accurately predict the 2016 US presidential election. It suggested that Hillary Clinton would win by 81%. This caused some backlash against the service, and the Bing team has since worked to improve the accuracy of the predictions. Bing Predicts has been highly successful in predicting election results. It achieved an accuracy rate of 97% for the 2014 United States Senate elections, 96% for the 2014 United States House of Representatives elections, and 89% for the 2014 United States gubernatorial elections. Bing Predicts also had a perfect 15 for 15 in the 2014 World Cup.
Bing Predicts has been highly successful in predicting outcomes of events, with an accuracy rate of up to 97%, but there are still some issues that have caused backlash against the service. For instance, Microsoft has been accused of censoring Bing search results in certain countries, which has raised concerns about regional censorship. Additionally, some users have reported performance issues with the service, such as slow loading times and a reliance on Google’s search results.
Bing News Backlash
The backlash against Bing News has been largely focused on two main issues: performance issues and regional censorship. Performance issues, such as slow loading times, have been a major source of criticism for Bing News. Additionally, Microsoft has been accused of censoring search results in order to comply with the censorship requirements of the government in China. This has been met with criticism from people who believe that Microsoft should not be supporting censorship.
In March 2022, Bing's auto-suggest function was suspended in China after being required by a "relevant government agency". This caused many to question the ethics of Microsoft's involvement with the Chinese government. A report by the Citizen Lab of the University of Toronto found that Bing censored the names of Chinese Communist Party leaders, dissidents, and other politically sensitive persons in China. This censorship was not just carried out within the Chinese borders, but also in the United States and Canada - both in Chinese and English.
Microsoft has also made deals with many search engines, such as Yahoo and Ask.com, where Microsoft is promoting its search offerings and search deals on Bing. This has caused some to question the purpose of these deals and whether or not they are beneficial to the users. Microsoft has also been fined €60 million by France for privacy law violations using Bing cookies.
Regional Censorship
Regional censorship refers to the suppression or control of certain information or content based on the beliefs or values of a specific region or area. Examples of regional censorship include the heavy censorship of political media in countries like Belarus and Turkey and the censorship of certain titles in the PlayStation 3 library based on the console hardware in certain regions.
In China, Bing has been accused of skewing search results to show more of state-run media like Xinhua News Agency and China Daily. A report by the Citizen Lab of the University of Toronto found that Bing censored the names of Chinese Communist Party leaders, dissidents, and other politically sensitive persons in China. This censorship was not just carried out within the Chinese borders, but also in the United States and Canada - both in Chinese and English.
Microsoft has agreed to a code of practice that requires it to demote links to copyright-infringing content in search results. Despite this, Microsoft still censors search results in simplified Chinese characters, regardless of the user's country. This caused many to question the ethics of Microsoft's involvement with the Chinese government. However, users can bypass the censorship on Bing by changing their country/region preference to the US, UK, or Republic of Ireland.
Microsoft has also agreed to comply with the censorship requirements of the government in China by censoring search results in simplified Chinese characters. Microsoft seemed determined to continue censoring search results in simplified Chinese characters, even after Google had altered their approach. This indicated that Microsoft had no intention to change their position. It is important to note that search results vary between different parts of the world on Bing, and that Bing takes measures to censor adult search terms in certain regions.
Performance Issues
Performance issues have been a major source of criticism for Bing News. In a study of 2000 participants, only 57% preferred Bing's results over Google's. Additionally, Microsoft has been accused of forcing Bing on people by making it the default search engine with no easy way out.
The initial response to the new Bing from journalists was also negative, as they criticized it for being more argumentative than ChatGPT, vulnerable to prompt injection attacks, and producing hallucinations. Additionally, a report by Google found that Bing was imitating its search results, and Microsoft was fined €60 million by France for privacy law violations using Bing cookies.
Google set up a honeypot to test Bing's imitating behaviour by configuring the Google search engine to return specific unrelated results for 100 nonsensical queries such as hiybbprqag. Microsoft responded to the released report by vowing to fix the problem. They also pledged to assign additional staff to combat the issue. Microsoft also stated that "We do not copy Google's results" and continues to improve Bing News to provide a unique and comprehensive news experience.
Allegedly Copying Google's Results
One of the main criticisms of Bing News is that it allegedly copies Google's results. This was particularly surprising because Google was able to generate search queries with results that were not returned on regular Bing searches, such as free images of illegal child pornography that had been tagged as illegal in national databases, and automatically suggesting queries related to child pornography via its auto-completion feature.
Microsoft has denied these allegations and continues to improve Bing News to provide a unique and comprehensive news experience. Microsoft has also indicated that it is committed to providing a safe and secure search environment, and has blocked image and video search results for "Tank Man" twice, once in 2021 and once in 2022. Both instances were attributed to accidental human error, and Microsoft responded by suspending the auto-suggest function in China in March 2022 and vowing to fix the issue and assign additional staff to combat the issue.
Summary
Bing News is an industry-leading news aggregator and search engine, that offers users a variety of features and services to help them find the information they need. Bing enjoys integration with Windows 8, providing users with access to various applications and accelerators. However, it has recently come under fire for regional censorship, inadequate performance issues, and mimicking Google's search results. Microsoft has vehemently denied these allegations and taken several steps to ensure a uniquely safe and secure search experience.
Ultimately, Bing News is an innovative solution to news aggregation and search that provides users with a variety of tools, resources, and information to help them safely and responsibly access the current news. It is up to the user whether to utilize its services or not, but Bing News certainly adds valuable convenience and utility to any search query.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who are the owners of Bing?
Microsoft Corporation owns and operates the web search engine Bing. It was previously known as MSN Search, Windows Live Search and Live Search before being acquired by Microsoft and rebranded as Bing in 2009.
Is Bing powered by Google?
No, Bing is not powered by Google. Microsoft Bing is powered by OpenAI, an American artificial intelligence (AI) research laboratory consisting of the non-profit OpenAI Incorporated (OpenAI Inc.) and its for-profit subsidiary corporation OpenAI Limited Partnership (OpenAI LP).
OpenAI conducts AI research with the declared intention of promoting and developing a friendly AI.
Is Bing still owned by Microsoft?
Yes, Bing is still owned by Microsoft. As one of Microsoft's core search engines, the Bing service has its origins in MSN Search, Windows Live Search and later Live Search.
Microsoft is continuously built upon and improved, to ensure users get the best search experience possible.
Is Bing and Google the same company?
No, Bing and Google are not the same company. While they both provide search engines, Google offers a wide range of products that integrate with their search engine. Bing is solely a search engine that powers a few other search modules.
Is Bing powered by Google?
No, Bing is not powered by Google. It is powered by OpenAI, the maker of the popular chatbot ChatGPT.
Microsoft released the new Bing, which is powered by artificial intelligence software from OpenAI.