This past June, Bing announced the planned integration of Twitter and Facebook into Bing search results. Bing has now announced the completion of the Facebook social search component of this plan.
A quick visit to the Bing blog provides a quick overview and introductory video demonstrating the new functionality.
Profile Search
The first aspect of this new functionality is the profile search. The profile search complements Bing’s search results by displaying people with a matching name. Bing is smart enough to take into account your social connections when displaying friends. This is helpful when searching for friends with common names like John Smith or, say, like Bill Baker.
Liked Results
The second aspect is the liked results. The liked results component serves up “liked” pages or pages that have been shared from the Web that correspond with search results. This can be helpful for movie suggestions, restaurant reviews, causes and much more. The idea behind this is that users look to their friends for advice and recommendations. If I see a book review from a friend who’s taste is similar to mine, I will be more apt to choose that book.
Like the Twitter integration with Google, this is a nice expansion for search results. Personalization of search results by including “likes” from my social circle definitely helps in my decision making. What I would love to see is the integration of Facebook Places into the search results so I can get real-time updates on the locations of my friends.
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