Bing Conversational Search

13-08-2014Tags: SEO

Yesterday, Bing announced a significant change to their search function. Bing allows you to ask a question in a manner you would to a friend, and then continue the conversation.

This is possible through Bing using previous searches to provide context for subsequent searches. Bing outlined that the main aim of this development was to dive into and learn more about a topic or interest.

The example below was provided via Bing Blogs:

"Who is the President of the United States" will show the most pertinent information about Barack Obama. From there you might ask, "Who is his wife." Through extensive developments to their platform, Bing maintains the context and keeps the conversation moving forward.

Bing outlined that these improvements build on extensive work they have down to develop the Bing platform; including investments in entity and conversational understanding. A spokesperson for Bing said, "This is a long journey, and we expect to deliver a number of additional improvements in the days ahead."

US Only

On their blog, Bing encourage you to give it a try and let them know what you think. However, this conversational change to Bing's search function only seems to have been rolled out in the US, with no indication of further UK developments. So in the meantime, we shall just have to sit tight and see if Bing plan to roll out this functionality to other territories.