Bing Rolls Out Adaptive Search

Sites include Bing.com . Published on September 21st, 2011. Written by Anthony West.

Bing may not control a very large section of the search market, but that doesn’t stop the search engine for trying its hand at innovation.

The latest innovation or should I say ‘improvement’ is what Bing is calling ‘Adaptive Search’. This feature allows the search engine to be more proactive in the results it displays and is based on the idea that a user’s search history is the best predictor of intent. Bing has continued to focus on these niche functionality of search in an effort to capture more market share. According to a representative from Microsoft, Adaptive Search is all about user empowerment and helping users find what they want more quickly.

Although Bing doesn’t dominate search like Google or Yahoo, it is still one of the most effective search engines. In fact, a recent report concluded that links followed from Bing, were more effective than Google and Yahoo. ‘Effective’ in this sense refers to how much a user who clicks goes on to engage with the site that is clicked through to. By adding Adaptive Search, Bing is set to increase this effectiveness and will no doubt increase its share of the search market.

Perhaps Microsoft isn’t throwing money down a black hole after all. This has been one of the biggest criticisms of the company, who many feel has no business outside of the ‘software space’. If users don’t get annoyed by Adaptive Search, we should expect great news coming out of Bing HQ.

Do you think Adaptive Search will be popular with users? Let us know what you think in the comments below.