Microsoft added a ton of new features to its Bing search engine over the past couple of years. The latest addition to Bing is an annotations feature that adds information directly to the search result pages.
Say you are shopping for a new gaming PC, a new smartphone or a pair of new trousers. Bing may remind you that coupons are available for specific sites listed in the results. Also, it may highlight whether the brand has the ethical shopping rating. Also, for individual products, you may be able to look at the price history directly on Bing's site. Microsoft notes that all three features are available in select countries only at the time of writing.
Tip: find out why Bing Video Search is better than YouTube Search
Annotations in the Bing search results
Bing's coupon annotation reveals if coupon codes are available for a specific site. Bing revealed that two coupons are available for Nike in the screenshot that you see above.
Just move the mouse over the coupons available section and the available coupons are displayed immediately on the page.
Each entry lists the discount and the requirements, if any, to get it on the site. The coupon codes are not displayed fully and you ned to select "copy & go" to copy the coupon code to the clipboard and open the site in question to use it.
Microsoft notes that the feature is available in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Germany and France at the time of writing.
Ethical choice
Next to coupon listings, Microsoft Bing may also highlight the "ethical choice" annotation for sites based on Good On You ratings.
Good On You ratings are an average of the scores for each of three focal areas: people, planet, and animals. Information is gathered from brand and parent company credible reporting, third-party indices (for example, the Fashion Transparency Index and CDP Climate Change and Water Security projects), and independent certifications, accreditations, and other standards-based systems (like Fair Trade, Cradle to Cradle, OEKO-TEX STeP and the Global Organic Textile Standard).
Hovering over the Ethical Choice annotation reveals an overall rating, using emoticons, and individual ratings for planet, people, and animals. The rating ranges from 1 (worst) to 5 (best).
Price history
The third annotation on Bing brings price history charts to the search engine. You need to search for specific products, e.g., Microsoft Surface Laptop 4 13.5", to see the price history annotation. Even then, there is a chance that you don't get any.
If provided, the current price and its stability are listed as an annotation on Bing. Hover over the price and you get the price history chart.
I got this on Amazon results only during tests, but it may work for other online shopping sites as well.
The feature is only available in the united States, Canada, France, Germany, Great Britain, Australia and India.
Closing Words
It is a hit and miss right now when it comes to Bing's new annotations feature. It seems available for a small number of sites only. The new features improve Bing Search, and could persuade users of coupon hunting sites to start using Bing more often. For that to happen, Microsoft needs to improve the number of support sites and regions significantly.
Now You: do you use Bing? What is your take on the annotations feature?
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