Do you remember your favorite teacher? Perhaps it was a math teacher who helped you overcome your fear of trigonometry, a chorus teacher who gave you the solo you so badly wanted, or a coach who pushed you to become the MVP you are today…whoever your favorite teacher was, we want to hear about him or her!

As this school year comes to an end, we are paying tribute to America’s heroes – our teachers – and we need your help. Bing would like you to submit a comment about a teacher who positively impacted your life (or the life of a child) at bing.com/education and in return, we will give you a $5 donation to help fund a teacher’s classroom project on DonorsChoose.org. Consider it conscientious conversations online: share a story about your favorite teacher and pay it forward to another one. How easy is that?

On average, teachers spend more than $1,000 out of their own pockets to fund classroom projects, and with impending budget cuts this number is expected to rise even higher. By sharing memories of favorite teachers, we can honor them by giving back to the teacher community. Share about your favorite teacher and help another teacher. Help one teacher and impact the education of a whole classroom of children.

Together we can help teachers get the materials they need to provide all students with a great education. 

Here’s how it works:

· Visit bing.com/education and submit a comment about a teacher who positively impacted your life or the life of a child you know. You may comment on up to five teachers.

· Receive an email from Bing with your $5 donation code and link to DonorsChoose.org.

· Decide what classroom project to fund with your $5 donation from Bing.

· Search for your comment on the Bing map. Bing will send every teacher their comments in a congratulations letter.   

So what are you waiting for? Get out there and start commenting about your most favorite teacher and start giving back to education!

Barbara Blanchard – Bing

Ok, it is not Friday yet…but I know a few weeks back Stefan mentioned getting the local listing center team on camera and today we have Mikko, Bing’s local listing center Senior Program Manager to answer some of your questions we have seen in the Bing Community Forums.

We hope to have Mikko back fairly regularly to bring us updates on all things Bing local listing center.

Thanks Mikko!

Kristin Meldahl – Bing

Other useful links:

Bing Local Listing Center

Bing Local Listing Center Community Forum

We’re happy to announce two new features to the Bing app for Windows phones. The first is a redesign to the home page. We changed the navigation to give people faster access to common searches, such as Movies and Traffic.

 The second feature is turn-by-turn navigation for Windows 6.x phones, powered by Bing Maps. We took advantage of the Microsoft Tellme team’s expertise in voice applications to deliver an amazingly lifelike voice experience for the turn-by-turn navigation. If you have a Windows phones on Sprint, T-Mobile, or AT&T you can use the voice guided navigation.

Now when getting directions with Bing, you’ll see a new “Navigate” button. By selecting it, Bing will calculate your route, and guide you as you drive. You can select the fastest or shortest route, choose to avoid traffic and/or tolls, get a map or a list of directions, and see arrows and hear alerts to know which way to turn next.  

The navigation feature is compatible with the phones below. If you have one of these and are in the U.S., check your phone for the update or go to m.bing.com.

Windows phone

HTC Fuze

HTC Pure

HTC HD2

HTC Tilt 2

HTC Touch Diamond 2

HTC Touch HD

HTC Touch Pro

HTC Touch Pro 2

Motorola Q9c

Samsung Jack

Samsung Omnia II

Samsung Propel

T-Mobile Dash 3G

 Justin Jed – Bing for Mobile

One of the great things about Microsoft Research is that their research projects can directly relate to what is happening in the company’s business units. Their years of research efforts on intensive, data-driven problems have resulted in cutting-edge technology transfers throughout the company.  Bing is just one example of a business unit that has benefited heavily from the work of the MSR team. Today at our Mountain View campus, Microsoft Research will display some of their work which has directly transferred into Bing. Some of the projects and features that they have contributed that you might recognize are:

Bing Maps Features

MSR is regularly delivering new features and services that are defining the cutting edge of mapping technology, such as geotagged panoramas, astronomical imagery, and bird’s-eye-image stitching.

WISE: Large-Scale Web Image Search and Exploration               

WISE is a Web-scale, content-based image-retrieval system. There are many applications: Imagine that you could submit to Bing a photo taken by your phone—a face, a product, or a historic landmark—and get back relevant information about the photo. With WISE, the researchers addressed two major challenges in such an image-search system: large-scale machine learning for image representation and efficient image indexing and querying.  WISE showcases general image search as well as specific applications, such as facial-image search, logo search, landmark search, and product search.

Worldwide Telescope in Bing Maps

The www.bing.com/twitter.

Interactive Search    

We are changing the paradigm of search, from the system guessing what you want based on a few words you type, to a dialog where you can continue to clarify your intent.  At the TechFair event, the researchers responsible for this feature will demonstrate Bing Active Answers, which allow the user to interact with Bing to refine what they meant, get results from Bing at keystroke speeds, share information with friends, and more.  Microsoft Research built and shipped the first Active Answer to let users check their airline flight status, and then helped interactivity become more widespread across Bing’s properties, including local results, travel, reference, and even connections with Bing’s partners.

Today the Microsoft Research team will also demo additional ways in which Microsoft Research is pushing forward the state of the art in computer science.  Attendees will have an opportunity to tour interactive demonstrations showcasing research in the areas of data-center services for data-intensive computing, privacy, cloud services, and natural user interfaces, all of which demonstrate how Microsoft Research is pushing forward the state of the art in computer science.

You can read more on this event and projects coming out the Microsoft Research team at http://research.microsoft.com. You can also follow them on twitter @MSFTResearch for all the latest.

Kristin Meldahl – Bing

A lot of us don’t shop alone. Going to the mall is often a social thing, so why should shopping online be any different? 75% of shoppers seek advice from others even when shopping online and now Bing shoppers can too! In the last announcement we refreshed the look of the reviews page so you can navigate the reviews from users and experts. Today we’ve unrolled a few more links to make it easy for you to ask for the input of your closest advisor- your social network.

You can now search Bing Shopping for the HTC HD2 Smartphone, and ask your friends on Facebook and Twitter if Bing Shopping is giving you the best price after cashback or if this is the one you should buy.

 You’ve had sharing for certain results like news and entertainment for a few months and now we bring you this sharing experience into Bing Shopping! With a single click you can ask for advice from your friends on Facebook and followers on Twitter for their take on a product you saw on Bing Shopping. You can even share it the old fashioned way – over email!  We see our users using it not only to get feedback on price but on whether a particular product would look good on them, has a better model, etc.

 So go and enjoy shopping with Bing Shopping and sharing and let us know what you think!

As always, stay tuned to this space- we have more in store for you this summer.

Lawrence Lam Program Manager, Bing Shopping

Sonam Saxena Product Manager, Bing Shopping

Other posts of interest:

Be Prepared This Mother’s Day

A New Look for Bing shopping

Starting today, you can find Bing at Web 2.0 Expo 2010 in San Francisco. If you happen to be attending the conference, you can catch us “officially” at the following sessions or “unofficially” at Bingaoke! on Tuesday night (RSVP link below).  Or just follow the team on @bing.

Making Social More Fun + More People + More Engaged:

Lili Cheng general manager of Microsoft’s Future Social Experiences (FUSE) Labs, which focuses on software and services that are centered on social connectivity, real-time experiences, and rich media will take the stage to discuss what projects are coming out of the FUSE Labs.
Wednesday, 05/05/2010 Morning
Location: Keynote Room – 3rd Level

Picture the Impossible: How an Online Game Can Change Your Offline Community
Elizabeth Lawley from the Rochester Institute of Technology discusses how to move people from their computer screens to nearby streets and neighborhoods through gaming with the help of Bing Maps.
Thursday, 05/06/2010 1:00pm
Location: 2009

How to Rise above the Noise in the Sea of Content:
Paul Yiu, group program manager behind Bing’s real-time and social efforts, will take you deeper down the social media rabbit hole and arm you with actionable advice about how to maximize your content for the real-time spectrum within search.
Thursday, 05/06/2010 3:10pm
Location: 2010

Bing & TechKaraoke Present: Bingaoke!

Bingaoke brings an epic night of live entertainment with karaoke DJ RogerNiner. So brush up your Pat Benatar or bust out that Lady Gaga outfit and join us for a night of singing, dancing, free food & drink and a karaoke contest for you die-hard fans.  RSVP via Eventbrite.  Also let your buddies know through the usual channels: Facebook , Facebook Group , and or Twitter (#bingaoke)

Tuesday, May 4, 2010 from 6:30-9:30pm

Jillians (across the street from Moscone West Convention Center)

Whether we meet at the show where I walk you through the 3 pillars of Bing or we end up sharing a heartfelt yet sloppy duet (thinking “Against all Odds”), looking forward to sharing a slice of time with you.

Aya Zook – Bing

If you live in Manhattan you might notice a new fashion trend that is spreading via the city’s Dog Walkers. We have partnered with Rodney Dorival, owner of Big Paws, Little Claws to bring awareness to Bing by outfitting the local Dog Walkers with Bing Branded t-shirts. And we just happen to love dogs too.

We will be doing some fun and interactive dog walker inspired games via the @bing twitter handle as well as on our Bing Facebook page throughout the summer. And on Fridays, we’ll be handing out Bing dog leashes in person and on twitter!  Just submit photos of the walkers and dogs that you see around town to Facebook or twitter with the #bingpaws hashtag for a chance to see them featured on our Facebook site. Make sure to also follow us on Twitter @bing and look for the #BingPaws hashtag for the latest on how you can play and win!

So for all you in the Manhattan area, keep an eye out for a dog walker and grab your camera when you see them! And for all you dog lovers around the country, check out the Bing visual search gallery to sort and view all your favorite dog breeds and maybe even find a new addition to the family!

Happy dog walking!

Kristin Meldahl – Bing