Microsoft's search engine Bing seems to have a strategy of forging partnerships that will help it to outdo larger rival Google. Already in the pipeline are plans for Yahoo! to use Bing's search engine, and now Microsoft has announced a partnership with Wolfram Alpha.
Wolfram Alpha was launched earlier in 2009 as an 'answer engine'. In its own words it exists to “make all systematic knowledge immediately computable by anyone.”
A post on Bing's blog explained the new development.
So what are we doing? Well, we‘ll be providing access to Wolfram|Alpha’s advanced algorithms and expertly curated data within the Bing experience. This new and exciting work is completely aligned with our broader goal of enabling faster, more informed decisions. Specifically, we will bring nutritional information and tools into Bing’s search results, as well as some straight up hard math and homework help.
This kind of functionality is likely to be popular with users because it will give them detailed information on topics that interest them. It will also be popular with internet marketing agencies because it is unlikely to have any real effect on their search engine optimisation strategies.
The changes are being rolled out over the next few days, and we will review them on our online marketing blog in due course.
