Bing’s Mobile Homepage Receives Botox Injection, More Efficient Layout
Microsoft is looking to up its game in the mobile search engine market a bit with a redesigned mobile homepage for Bing search. The new mobile homepage will be available to both Android and iOS users and includes a handful of new features to satisfy existing search customers and draw in new users.
The first of course is a facelift for the homepage, which includes a new translucent color scheme, and a “swipe up” card system to display more information.
Other new features include an Image of the Day (IOTD) card that allows you to “learn the story behind the image of the day,” the Popular Now card that shows you currently trending stories (which are updated through the day), a Bing Rewards card that allows you to keep track of your progress as you earn points for each of your search queries while using Bing, and Settings card to allow you to quickly access settings like Safe Search (you can never been too careful when searching at work).
It remains to be seen whether these changes will do much to boost Microsoft’s mobile market share. More often than not, when someone wants to search for something on the Internet, they “Google it” rather than opt for an alternative like Microsoft’s Bing. After all, if we take a look at global desktop search engine market share, Google is running away from the competition with a 62.3 percent share according to Net Applications; the next closest competitor is Baidu with 19.82 percent. Microsoft is well behind at 8.11 percent with Bing.
Google’s domination is even more apparent on the mobile side of things, where it commands 91.94 percent of the search market (I guess you can chalk that up to the immense popularity of the Android operation system). Bing, on the other hand is clinging on to just 2.06 percent.
