Bing rolled out some new features for mobile search recently, with Facebook and movies released for its mobile edition, Bing Mobile Browse. The search engine, which has been pushing the social aspect of Mobile Browse since the start of this year, took things a step further by opening up its Facebook ‘Liked Results’ feature for mobile. Bing also announced the inclusion of mobile-friendly videos and cinema session times for Mobile Browse.
Bing’s partnership with Facebook led to the inclusion earlier this year of Liked Results in normal computer-based searches. This feature, which uses Facebook data to personalise results, has now been extended to the search engine’s mobile version.
The cinema times feature, also new, pairs Facebook Likes with cinema session information to enable users to access friends’ opinions when choosing a movie on the go. The search engine has also made videos from numerous popular video sites, such as Hulu and YouTube, available for mobile viewing.
This is another step forward in the Bing-Facebook relationship, which has sparked much speculation within the search engine optimisation industry. Bing has gradually been adding Facebook-influenced features since the start of the year, many of the company’s moves matching social steps with Google’s +1. The fight for dominance of both the social and search engine industries is particularly interesting to those in SEO careers whether in Merseyside or Manhattan, as social sites appear to be gaining greater influence as time goes by.
Bing’s use of Facebook for mobile search is a demonstration of social industry clout. Google’s reply remains to be seen.