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After months of beta status, Microsoft has today launched the final UK version of the search engine Bing, aiming squarely for Google’s market share.
The firm claims that the search engine market, led by Google and Yahoo, hasn’t changed in the last ten years, ignoring all the technological advances that have occurred in that time. As a consequence, consumer understanding hasn’t been adequately served, says Microsoft.
The chief way Bing looks to address these issues is by not limiting itself to the medium of text, using more graphical and audio based interfaces. The firm claims this ‘visual search’ offers a genuinely new way of interacting with the internet.
Ashley Highfield, VP and MD for Consumer and Online at Microsoft UK said: “Bing is ready for the UK consumer, with our revolutionary way of searching the Internet proving very popular. Features such as Categorised Search, Twitter and Visual Search, are providing a different and intuitive experience, and are enabling us all to make informed decisions and discover more of the web – faster.
"However, this is by no means the end of our development. We will continue to innovate and introduce new features on an ongoing basis by listening and responding to what UK search users find relevant. Removing our beta tag is merely the first step to signal Bing is here and already has features that are superior to those provided by other search engines.”
The engine has been in testing for five months in Microsoft’s European Search Technology Centre, honing the technology for UK centric searches.
