New Bing, Available Today, Takes You From Searching to Doing

USA - English

• USA - English

REDMOND, Wash., June 1, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Do you ever feel like you're spending too much time searching and not enough time doing? If so, you're not alone. According to a recent survey conducted by Bing and Impulse Research, nearly 75 percent of people spend more time than they would like searching for information online. Time wasted searching is a thing of the past with the new Bing design, which brings together information from the Web, experts and enthusiasts, and your friends to help you do more — available in the U.S. today at http://www.bing.com.

To view the multimedia assets associated with this release, please click: http://www.multivu.com/mnr/56054-bing-summer-of-doing

(Photo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120601/MM15512 )

Only Bing brings together the best search with people from social networks, including Facebook and Twitter. In celebration of this new search experience, Bing is joining forces with DoSomething.org to launch the Bing Summer of Doing, designed to inspire people to do amazing things, including giving back to their communities.

New Bing Helps Search Go Social

Most things in life are better with people you trust; in fact, more than 90 percent of survey respondents reported they are likely to seek the opinions or advice of friends and family as part of their decision-making process around events, purchases, travel and more, and more than 90 percent will even delay a decision to first get input from family and friends. The new social features in Bing make it easy to exchange ideas, share opinions and take action, giving searchers the same confidence they get from bouncing an idea off a friend. With Bing, it's easier than ever to get that input and go from searching to doing.

Whether it's making a purchase, choosing a restaurant or deciding what movie to see, the new Bing design focuses on unique ways to bring friends and experts right into the search experience. These social results, found in the right column and called sidebar, complement the standard search results without compromising them, offering searchers the chance to start a conversation and get advice from friends, experts and enthusiasts right within the search experience. Bing shows which friends have liked or might know about content related to the query and will identify experts and enthusiasts that can provide recommendations on the topic of interest. In addition, you can post a question and get help from your Facebook friends while you search, friends can easily see and reply to your questions on Facebook or Bing, and you can follow the activity feed to see your friends' queries and posts in real time, never missing a beat.

Bing also makes it easy to get things done in one place with the new center column, called snapshot, which will roll out in the next few weeks. It includes information, such as maps and reviews, and quick ways to take action, so booking a restaurant reservation or checking hotel rates are now quicker and easier. The new Bing offers restaurant reservations, hotel reviews, movie trailers and show times, maps, and more right within the search experience, giving you everything you need to take action in one place and eliminating the need to visit multiple sites to complete tasks.

Bing Summer of Doing Designed to Inspire

To celebrate the new search experience and inspire people to take action in their communities, Bing is launching a summer-long campaign called the Bing Summer of Doing. As part of this campaign, Bing is joining forces with DoSomething.org, the largest U.S. organization for teens and social change, to inspire people to give back to their communities. The campaign kicks off today in Los Angeles at Heart of Los Angeles (HOLA), with additional community volunteer events planned throughout the summer in various cities across the nation, including Atlanta, New York and Chicago.

Today at HOLA, which provides thousands of underserved and at-risk youth with exceptional free after-school programs in academics, arts and athletics, Bing will work alongside celebrities and volunteers to beautify and renovate the community center through various projects. The day of service will conclude with a surprise unveiling for HOLA students and a celebratory pizza party and surprise performance by Cody Simpson in the Lafayette Park Recreation Center.

In addition, a national daily challenge called "The Hunt, 11 Days of Doing," which is designed to drive action, will be hosted online by DoSomething.org later this summer. The Hunt will inspire teens to participate in 11 days of challenges to create positive community impact. Beginning July 10, teens will be presented with a new series of challenges each day, focused on a specific cause. Teams will work together to complete the challenges and report back to show how they were able to create measurable impact in their community, all while collecting points to win prizes.

To get involved in your own community, visit http://www.bing.com/doing to search for local projects and use the new Bing to get inspiration from your friends on how to give back this summer.

About the Survey

The survey was conducted online with a random sample of 1,009 men and women, ages 18–34, who use the Internet for information on a regular basis. All respondents are members of the Impulse Research Corp. proprietary online panel. The Impulse Research proprietary online panel has been carefully selected to closely match U.S. population demographics, and the respondents are representative of American men and women aged 18–34.

Research was conducted in May 2012. The overall sampling error rate for this survey is +/- 3 percent at a 95 percent level of confidence.

About Bing

Bing is the search engine from Microsoft, designed for people who do. For people like you who are always doing more and don't have time to sit still. Now, only Bing brings together the best search and the best people from your social networks, like Facebook and Twitter, to help you spend less time searching and more time doing. So whether you're on your PC or on your phone, Bing is designed not just to connect you to the information you are looking for, but also to help you get things done right on Bing.com.

About DoSomething.org

We love teens. They are creative, active, wired ... and frustrated that our world is so messed up. DoSomething.org harnesses that awesome energy and unleashes it on causes teens care about. Almost every week, we launch a new national campaign. The call to action is always something that has a real impact and doesn't require money, an adult, or a car. With a goal of 5 million active members by 2015, DoSomething.org is one of the largest organizations in the US for teens and social change. Join us at www.DoSomething.org.

About Microsoft

Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq "MSFT") is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.

SOURCE Microsoft