Microsoft has updated its Bing iPhone application to contain even more goodies than before. Bing is slowly winning us over when it comes to searching (Apple has even added it to Safari 5.0), but this application might have been the tipping point. Not only are there social networking features packed right in, but there's also a new search option called Visual Scanning that lets you scan books, movies, and more to see relevant results.
The Bing application, which is free from the App Store [iTunes link], now includes the ability to scan barcodes or artwork from books, CDs, and other items to get prices, reviews, and even links to websites selling the items. It's almost like Google Goggles meets Amazon's iPhone app with the "Remember" feature.
In addition, the search application can now search through your social networking accounts on Twitter and Facebook.
According to Bing leader at Microsoft, Justin Jed, "Now you can connect your Facebook and Twitter accounts and see combined status updates from your friends from within the Bing app. But that’s easy. When we asked what else we could do with this personal intelligence, we looked at the data behind how people were using their social networks. Turns out that over 40% of the time when people ask ambiguous queries that don’t have a defined answer--like where should I go to eat tonight--social networks are faster at providing a great answer than traditional search engines."
TechCrunch via 9to5 Mac
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