bing

Bing is now taking a "less is more" approach with the latest redesign of its search results page.

Microsoft's new tweaks to its search results have eliminated all of the information previously squeezed on the "left rail," offering a less-cluttered look and feel. The search results themselves take center stage, so you're not distracted by peripheral information.

In a nod to social networking, certain results now might sport a thumbs-up icon next to them, indicating that one or more of your Facebook friends likes that result. Hovering over the thumbnail of your friend's … Read more

There have been recurrent calls among some on Wall Street, some shareholders -- and apparently some execs inside Microsoft -- for Microsoft to dump Bing.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer seems to be dead-set against the idea. The official Microsoft stance is Bing search is "a pretty strategic asset for the company" with benefits that "can be leveraged across our whole product set."

But privately it seems that some of Microsoft's key negotiators have floated the idea of offloading Bing to Facebook as a possible strategy. That's according to a New York Times report on April 23 … Read more

Richard, our studio engineer, is the inspiration for today's show title that goes along with a story about his old Dumpster-diving days, when he'd raid the Hostess factory at the end of the night to recover "old" Twinkies and Ho Hos.

Jeff faced childhood memories of his own this weekend while cleaning out his old closet, unearthing treasures like Palm Pilots, two Sega Dreamcasts, and a box of old CD jewel cases. If you don't know what those things are, you're too young to be listening to The 404.… Read more

The Google search bar saves you the step of opening a new window or tab to search for something, should you endeavor to copy and paste or type a search term into it. With Search Highlighter, you save another step between you and your Google results, needing only to highlight a word in Chrome and hit return.

The extension adds a menu bar below your bookmarks bar with either a Google or Bing search bar (your choice). Any word you highlight shows up in the search bar; hit return or click the magnifying glass button to initiate a search.

If … Read more

If you ask a friend where to eat or for their favorite dish at a specific restaurant, you'll probably give their suggestion a lot more weight than an automatically generated one, especially if that friend knows your tastes in food.

That's the basic premise behind Jybe, a brand-new iPhone app that launched today. Built by a small team led by three longtime search industry veterans, the app is designed to give users highly relevant suggestions for restaurants--including specific dishes--as well as movies, books, and other things.

These days, there's plenty of ways to get recommendations and reviews … Read more

Microsoft has fired two executives in its Bing group for allegedly mismanaging corporate assets.

The company said this morning that it's terminated the employment of Eric Hadley and Sean Carver.

"We can confirm that as the result of an investigation, Eric Hadley and Sean Carver's employment with Microsoft has been terminated for violation of company policies related to mismanagement of company assets and vendor procurement," the company said in a statement.

The company declined to offer any more details about the alleged policy violations. Neither Hadley nor Carver replied to a request for comment sent via … Read more

It was business as usual for the U.S. search engine market in February.

Google gained a fraction of a point, bumping its share to 66.4 percent, while Yahoo lost a bit more ground, leaving it with just 13.8 percent of the market. Microsoft's Bing eked out a slight gain to grab 15.3 percent of the market and retain its grip on the No. 2 spot.

Yahoo has steadily been losing market share over the past couple of years, finally relinquishing second place to Bing in December. Looking at the hard numbers, Google captured 11.7 … Read more

Soon LG and Samsung won't be the only TV makers to offer the ability to control your TV by talking to it.

Yesterday Nuance Communications announced that its Dragon TV voice control platform would be shipping with some Panasonic TVs in Europe this year.

Plans for a US introduction were not announced, and a Panasonic representative I spoke to didn't have any additional details. I don't expect the company to incorporate voice control into its already-announced 2012 TVs, via some kind add-on USB microphone for example, but it is a possibility. I'd be surprised if 2013 … Read more

Facebook users who want to control what information pops up when a friend searches for them at Bing have a new option.

Rolled out yesterday, Bing's Linked Pages let Facebook users manage which of their Web pages, profiles, and blogs show up on Microsoft's search engine. So whether you want to promote yourself or keep your other Web pages off the grid from your friends, Linked Pages will give you a certain level of control.

The feature requires a Facebook account, but you can use it to manage any Web pages about yourself, not just your Facebook profile. … Read more