This is part 4 of our daily series looking at the ways in which Windows 8, the operating system from Microsoft due out on Friday, could influence search marketing and attract new users to Bing.
- Part 1 – Start Screen and Windows RT
- Part 2 – User Accounts and Synchronisation
- Part 3 – Browser Apps & Windows Phone
- Part 4 – Desktop Search and Bing Apps
- Part 5 – Getting Social
Since this post was prepared, Google has confirmed a set of apps will be made available for Windows 8 and Windows 8 Professional – but not the tablet edition Windows RT. launches. By releasing search apps, Google will be able to maintain its search dominance in the desktop market, and personally I would expect Windows RT apps to follow if that platform becomes a success.
The Evolution of Desktop Search
The start menu is dead, long live the start screen! With the start menu’s reign over, Microsoft have given as a different way to conduct searches in Windows 8. Windows 8 contains ‘charms’ – little widgets available by moving your mouse pointer to different points of the screen. One of these charms is designed specifically for searching. Not only does the search charm let you look for files on your computer, you can also jump directly into searches of installed apps which load their content from the internet, bypassing search engines completely.
If you open the search charm while a specific app is open (for example ‘News’), your search will default to the appropriate type. That’s logical, as you’d most likely want to search within that app or you wouldn’t have it open. You can easily click on another app from within the search charm if you need to search that instead.
Bing Apps
Windows 8 includes a number of apps as standard, and more can be loaded from the Store. A number of these apps are powered by Bing, and here we’ll take a look at some of my favourites.
Maps App
The Maps app uses Bing Maps and is a quick and easy way for finding directions and business listings, just like you currently do with Google Maps. Bing Maps is powered by Nokia, which highlights the important relationship between these two companies. Nokia has made Windows Phone 8 the main operating system over their upcoming range of phones, and these include Nokia Drive, an impressive Sat Nav currently available in Windows Phone 7. Business listings in both Bing Maps and Nokia Drive can be configured in Nokia Prime Place. If integration in Windows 8 and Nokia Drive helps Bing Maps to become popular, you can expect SEO companies to make configuring a Nokia Prime Place business listing a high priority.
News App
The News app in Windows 8 is a nice feature that will initially load ‘Bing Daily,’ a roundup of the latest news available from various sources. When you click on the story it will load in a way that naturally lends itself to swiping on a touch screen tablet. If you want to search for a particular piece of news, use the search charm. Naturally this is all powered by Bing, which means getting into Bing News could become more important amongst content marketers.
Bing
There is also a general Bing app. While nicely presented on a touch screen, in my view this doesn’t offer much additional functionality than the regular website or individual apps. The text in the settings charm for the Bing app confirms searches within Bing apps are synchronised to your Microsoft account. This could and probably will lead to an increase in personalised search results during future online Bing searches.
Other Bing apps
We’ve looked at some of the most significant Bing apps that could affect search. Whilst there are several apps we’ve not looked at, I feel my point has been made – if Bing isn’t on your radar then maybe it should be as the integration in Windows 8 works well. Of the other apps – suffice to say these are mostly simple, pretty, and fairly good at delivering the information you want in just a few mouse clicks. In particular I liked both the weather and travel maps, and used these earlier in the year before heading off on holiday. If you want to read more, this article from Bing outlines the different apps available
Next time….
That’s it for today, and you should now be pretty clued up about a lot of the new features in Bing and how they can affect search. Tomorrow will mark two things – the final entry in this series, but also the moment this series has been leading up to: the launch of Windows 8!
- Part 1 – Start Screen and Windows RT
- Part 2 – User Accounts and Synchronisation
- Part 3 – Browser Apps and Windows Phone 8
- Part 4 – Desktop Search and Bing Apps
- Part 5 – Getting Social
