Keep the Wave Going: Bing Unveils Streetside Imaging for Maps, New Toolbar and More

Today, Satya Nadella Senior Vice President, Online Services at Microsoft unveiled new Bing features at an event in San Francisco. The updates involve Bing Maps, the Bing Mobile App and a new Bing Toolbar. There was also

Maps

• Streetside imaging – yes, that’s Microsoft’s version of Google’s Street View. It’s smart for Bing to compete with the Google monster on this one.
• Twitter integration – see real-time updates based on location
• Local Lens – indexes local blogs and tries to associate them with a physical location
• What’s Nearby – find what’s near a location. Staying at a hotel? Find the nearest pizza.
• Photosynths – integrating the photo technology into maps. Try “metropolitan museum of art in New York City” for an example.

Mobile

Microsoft has made the Bing Mobile app available for Windows Mobile. It was released for BlackBerry Storm last month.

The app includes voice search, maps, and quick answers. Windows Mobile users can browse to m.bing.com to download the app.

Toolbar

When Bing launched, the MSN toolbar integrated Bing branding into their toolbar. Now, there’s a new Bing Toolbar called the “Bing Bar.” Sounds like a candybar, I know. But Nadella characterized the new “Bing Bar” as a “virtual assistant.” It’s available for IE and Firefox, and here’s what it provides:

• Cashback detector – alerts you to Cashback deals while you shop
• Browse Plus – puts Bing to work, finding content, breaking news, sports scores, stock alerts, etc. while you browse.
• Search Assist – query suggestion feature

Social Network Visual Search Experience

Coming soon, Bing will integrate Twitter and Facebook feeds into Bing’s Visual Search experience. Bing says this will enable user to more quickly find status updates, upcoming birthdays, etc.

A social network Visual Search experience — by integrating Facebook and Twitter feeds, Bing Visual Search allows you to quickly find your status updates of your friends and followers, sort by upcoming birthdays and more. Coming soon at http://www.bing.com/visualsearch.

Bing also released data on the most popular decisions being made on their decision engine. Check out this chart: