Microsoft, in a move to enhance Bing, its search engine results, has agreed to a deal with Encyclopedia Britannica that will increase the amount of information on the service.
Microsoft announced the new deal in a company blog post. The deal means that information from the online Britannica site will be included in selected search results from Bing. The move is also part of the encyclopedia’s expansion into the digital world following a March announcement it would stop production of its printed version after more than 244 years. The move also is Microsoft’s response to Goggle, its search rival’s Knowledge Graph that was recently unveiled and consolidates information about certain subjects in its search results.
On Bing, Microsoft has an answers button, which helps to summarize the information alongside its search results, along with the opportunity to dig deeper if desired.
The new agreement with Britannica will allow information from Britannica Online to be integrated directly into the results page on Bing. The answers give quick overview of each subject, useful facts, a thumbnail photo and figures, which make it easier than in any other place to get content that is reliable. Links to other trusted online sources are also included in the Bing search results.
Along with results from Britannic Online, search results from Bing will flag other information sources including Freebase, Wikipedia and Qwiki. The Knowledge Graph from Goggle, launched in May is aimed at making web searches more human by finding information and results that are more relevant.
