Bing Just Got a Whole Lot Smarter

Bing search is getting some intelligent new features today. Microsoft is adding some neat improvements to the search engine to make it easier for users to look for hotels, etc.

Bing’s hotel booking experience is getting revamped to offer a more convinient feature for users. When you select a hotel that you are about to book, Bing will now display similar, but higher-rated hotels near you at the same rate to help you save money. It also now shows you historical price trends for a hotel, so you can save a few bucks by checking-in a day later, or earlier. Bu the new hotel comparison feature is really powerful — it breaks down all the crucial features you need on a hotel, and compare them against other hotels. You can compare things like how many attractions are nearby, or how far they are, as well as the things like breakfast availability, airport distance, and prices.

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And for those who look for coupons and deals before making a purchase, Bing is getting smarter there, too. Bing will now display crucial information like whether the offers are online or in-store only, or whether they are expiring soon, etc. Bing already shows the different discounts you can get before even clicking on a link, so it’s getting really helpful when combined with the new insights.

The last area where Bing is getting improved is an interesting one: home services. Bing is partnering with Porch, a service that helps you find professionals for home services, to help surface better results within search. It will now show you things like cost ranges, which are meant to help find a “fair” or the average cost for a certain service based on your location. It will also now let you get a quote for supported home service providers from within search.

Bing isn’t saying whether advertisers will be prioritized in any of these search features, though that seems quite unlikely. It’s possible you’ll continue to see paid search results on top of the search results, but that shouldn’t impact any of the new features like the hotel comparison tool.

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Conversation 11 comments

  • maethorechannen

    Premium Member
    03 August, 2018 - 2:57 pm

    <p>Ho hum -</p><p><br></p><p><em style="color: rgb(80, 80, 80); background-color: transparent;">All of them are available in the US</em></p>

    • PeterC

      03 August, 2018 - 5:09 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#298953">In reply to maethorechannen:</a></em></blockquote><p>Exactly, stuff like this always gets my ire. Google’s no better, but probably quicker at dev roll out ( sometimes). </p><p><br></p><p>Maybe this is what’s meant by modern life services…. </p>

    • GarethB

      Premium Member
      05 August, 2018 - 9:08 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#298953">In reply to maethorechannen:</a></em></blockquote><p>Good service in the USA.</p><p>Cr*p service outside the USA.</p><p>Yep, the usual Microsoft. Hence why the EU can charge Google as a monopoly there, because there is no effective competition.</p>

  • george_perry

    03 August, 2018 - 7:41 pm

    <p>So, I tried the use the info in this article and was directed to the Lowes / Porch site where you select the type of work you want done. First thing that happened was a popup wanting me to enter the store number to get started! Who the hell knows the local Lowes store number ?! The popup would not even let me close it. I looked up info on this partnership, and hit a page with over 2500 1 star reviews of Lowes and Porch. I know this article was not about this specific area but thought I would post on my experience and of nothing else, vent. Thanks.</p>

  • Bats

    03 August, 2018 - 8:26 pm

    <p>This is an improvement for Bing, with regards to hotel booking? Then let me be one of the first to congratulate Bing and say Welcome to the year 2013!</p>

    • dontbe evil

      09 August, 2018 - 7:32 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#299025">In reply to Bats:</a></em></blockquote><p>I bet you missed all the features Bing got before google</p>

  • Lewk

    Premium Member
    04 August, 2018 - 10:40 am

    <p>You forgot to mention that this is U.S-only.</p>

    • bcpj

      05 August, 2018 - 3:07 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#299101">In reply to Lewk:</a></em></blockquote><p>Possibly the most frustrating thing about Windows. Why keep everything so focused on the US?</p><p><br></p><p>I remember Nadella, years ago, stating that cultural differences lie at the foundation of this 'problem'. At the time it made kinda, sorta sense. It's simply not believable any longer. I (in Europe) would also like to benefit from all the perks that US customers get to enjoy…</p>

    • LusoPT

      05 August, 2018 - 5:50 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#299101">In reply to Lewk:</a></em></blockquote><p>Virtually every cool Bing feature is U.S only, unfortunately…</p>

  • Tony Barrett

    04 August, 2018 - 1:14 pm

    <p>Still the problem remains – very, very few use Bing by choice. It may 'power' Windows 10 search and various other MS services, but other than that, it's still a dud. Google reigns supreme and there's no sign of that changing.</p>

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