Search Engine Optimization NEWS

Bing just keeps adding, and adding, and adding, and adding. Kinda reminds me of Google.

Bing has announced a new “Stocks and Funds page” that offers in-depth information for users following or doing research related to stocks and finances. A sample page looks like this one for Apple:

Searching on Bing for a company’s or fund’s ticker symbol prompts a new link called “Investor Data” on Bing’s main search results page. (circled in the image above) Clicking that link leads to the new Stocks and Funds page.

This is probably not a feature I’ll be using much since it’ll only remind me that I sold a few shares of Apple stock many years ago when it was below $10. Sorry, Bing….

Bing serves up one of the nicest recipe search functions we’ve seen. Filling in gaps of niche search has become one of Bing’s greatest strategies, what Google and Yahoo fall short on Bing is exploiting, and they’re doing it well.

Bing has added a new recipe search to its repertoire. Pulling from popular recipe sites such as delish.com, epicurious, and MyRecipes.com, Bing is able to supply you with a bunch of options for various dishes you wish to create.

Ratings and a quick look at nutritional information accompany the results. Take a look at the screenshots for searches for “green bean casserole recipe” and “strawberry shortcake recipe.” Hungry yet?

OMG, Hell has frozen over!

If BusinessWeek is right on this one, we might be witnessing soon the next stage of the “Apple vs Microsoft” to “Apple vs Google” paradigm shift.

Indeed, according to people “familiar with the matter who asked not to be named” (classical), Apple would be in talks with Microsoft to replace Google by Bing as the iPhone’s default search engine.

It’s rumored not to be exclusive and users would still have the possibility to select Google if it suits them more. On the other hand we all know that users tend to usually stick with what they get.

It would make sense, in the mobile market at least, Apple’s real rival is Google and its Android, not really Microsoft. Furthermore Apple hasn’t been reluctant to collaborate with Microsoft in the past, think of the iPhone’s Exchange support.

While I don’t think we should get concerned that our iPhone will get stripped of Youtube or Gmail any time soon, the Apple-Google battle is definitely heating up.

Would you mind using Bing?

. While most of you hate the idea, and some of you don’t mind, it seems like this would be more serious than we thought. There is a couple points behind that according to CNBC’s Jim Goldman;

First of all, the iPhone is an extremely interesting platform for Microsoft. Apparently the Bing iPhone app:

“became Microsoft’s best mobile search by volume of queries, better than the traffic Verizon drives to Microsoft, and Bing is already the default the search engine across that network.”

Secondly, Steve Jobs has apparently some serious issues with Google’s CEO Eric E. Schmidt, as reported by Goldman:

Jobs hates Eric

Lastly, and this is probably the most interesting bit for you iPhone owners, he’s claiming that every time you do a Google search on mobile Safari and you click an ad, Apple gets a payment. This is very likely in my opinion, and since Microsoft’s cut backs are higher than Google’s, it would be very interesting for Apple to make such a deal.

While we might discuss on Jobs’ personal issues with Schmidt, the cash argument is more than valid. What’s your take on this?