Looks like Bing is clearing off its desk before the holiday break, and after updates to the Snapshot and the Social Sidebar, Bing has also released a variety of new updates.
First up is Bing Desktop, which was first released in beta in early April of 2012, which the Bing Search blog announced has been updated. The new update is available for all users of Windows, from XP on, and is available in English, French, German, Chinese, and Japanese.
Aside from bringing the iconic Bing home page image right to your desktop every day, Bing Desktop provides a search bar on demand without opening your browser, and offers an information icon to learn more about the home page image, Top Content, with links to Top News, Trending Images, Top Videos, and Popular Now, and a set of options. Perhaps the most interesting option, for those of us researching the latest trends from around the world (we’re always looking for a scoop!) is the ability to change the scope of the Bing Search to another country:
You can download and install Bing Desktop v1.1 from your Windows machine.
Another update appears to have come to Friend’s Photos in Bing. While the feature is not new (we wrote about it back in August), it looks as though it’s getting a bit more play, with an appearance in the list of features under “more”:
Now this may have actually been there a while, and we just noticed it, but still, Friend’s Photos is a nice little feature (as are many of the “more” features), so check it out if you haven’t in a while.
Also up is news that the Social Sidebar, which was updated earlier in the week, is now also available on Safari for iPad, including the iPad Mini. You can read more on the Bing Search blog.
(thanks Quikboy for the tips!)