For over six months now Bing has had access to Facebook data as a result of a partnership deal with the social giant. The deal, which must have turned heads at Google was set to incorporate Facebook data into search results has had a slow implementation, with Bing not fully utilising the data for over half a year.
That all changed yesterday however as Bing announced the next level of Facebook integration which will provide searchers with highly personalised search results; results which are tailored using the users’ Facebook profile.
The full integration differs markedly from the previous levels of integration in 3 ways:
- Firstly it shows the user which search results have previously been liked by their friends, even adapting the search results to display popular pages on the front page.
- Secondly, Bing is using the global “like” data to provide additional rankings for pages, meaning that popular pages on Facebook are more likely to appear at the top of search results.
- Thirdly, Bing has now made discussing, sharing and talking about specific search results much easier across Facebook.
These additions to Bing make it a far more social experience and may even help Bing to carve out a considerable niche within the search engine marketplace.
