Did you catch the opening ceremony for the Winter Olympics last Friday to kick off the games? To access that and all the latest videos from the games and for a snap shot into all the Olympic excitement visit www.msn.com to view the Winter Olympics module at the top of the page.

 There has been a lot of buzz in the hallways about favorite events and favorite athletes. So we thought we’d look at what people are searching for on Bing to see which events people are most interested in online. According to our search trends it looks like leading up to the games snowboarding is at the top of them heap, followed closely by hockey.

As the games continue, we wanted to remind everyone of the many ways you can take advantage of Bing and MSN and our partnership with NBC Olympics to keep up to date on all the happenings at the winter games. 

Use Bing to find answers to your quick questions about the games. You can use the Sports Events Schedule Instant Answer to get the schedule for each sport at the Olympics. For example search for: figure skating schedule, bobsled schedule, etc.

And when you search for  terms like “Winter Olympics”, “NBC Winter Olympics”, etc. you’ll see the Winter Olympics Instant Answer with information from the official Olympics site at nbcolympics.com, an immersive and high definition slideshow experience, a “Today’s Events” section with links to sports with events, and the medal count for the top three countries.

Now if you are on the go, MSN Mobile has quick access to the top news stories for the Olympics, pictures and links to the most recent Olympic video on NBC’s site, and a summary of the US medal count and link to all see all other countries. Just visit mobile.msn.com from your phone.

Now that you can access all of this Olympic information, test how much you really know about the games by taking the Winter Games Quiz on our Facebook page. It’s a fun way for you to learn about all the different Bing features that you can use to keep current on the Olympics, such as instant answers and the

Almost like being there

The countdown is over

NBC Universal partners with MSN and Microsoft to deliver NBCOlympics.com on MSN

Bing and MSN your Olympics Hub

Have you ever thought about all the content and media out there on the Web? Information that we use daily to help make decisions, like reviews of the best restaurant for chicken parmesan or the t-shirt shop perfect for a vintage G&R t-shirt? We all know that you can find nearly anything on the web in the form of blogs, websites, user reviews, tweets, etc.

But the Web is changing. In the past we have been forced to ‘disassociate’ all this content from its physical context. Sure, you can write a review of that great B&B. But once you do that, it escapes into the ether and loses its connection to the real world – the place that gave you the idea to write it in the first place. We thought there was probably a  better way to reconnect all this data with its home, to provide greater context, and to ultimately help you use it to make a better decisions about things you’re trying to get done in real life, not just on a search engine.

We began talking about this idea of Spatial Search a bit back in December when we launched our new version of Bing Maps and today at TED, Blaise Aguera y Arcas, Bing Maps architect will be unveiling some more work that demonstrates how we’re reuniting data with context. Some of what we’re showing is in research stage, some you can use today, and some you’ll be able to use shortly. But before we geek out on the features, it might be helpful to frame in a context. So, let’s do that…

The idea behind Spatial Search came from looking at human psychology and trying to understand how we as humans make decisions. We use all our senses: sight, touch, smell, sound, and taste. Today’s blue-link model doesn’t do a good job in tapping any of those senses and instead made you visually recreate models in your head to get through complex tasks. In other words, when you read a review of that French bistro, you had to manufacture everything: the street location, the ambience, where exactly in the city it was, and more.  While we’re not working on smell-o-search (yet!), we do think we can do a better job with the ‘sight’ and ‘touch’ senses you rely on every day. 

So when we think about Spatial Search, we think about the modes you all go through when you’re out and about, interacting with people and places rather than machines. First, you Explore: you orient yourself. You get a feel for what’s around and figure out your environment. Next, you Discover. Using your senses and visual cues you try and make sense of your surroundings. You look at storefront signage, street signs, and other clues to let you know where you might want to go to get your task done. Finally, you Decide: you take in and process all of the input around you to try and make the best decision for the task at hand. Maybe it’s the opening hours of the dry cleaners (oops – its closed) that tells you that you need to go to the bakery you can smell around the corner until it opens, and hop on their wi-fi network to get some work done while you wait. The challenge for Spatial Search is how we use technology to augment all those tasks, bring context to you so that information transforms into knowledge, which leads to actions taken to make your life easier and more informed.

For Exploring, we’ve made a number of updates to the Bing Maps platform to bring this idea to life through high resolution imagery from outer space all the way down to the front door of the bakery. Today at TED, we’re announcing a next step in this evolution of making this imagery more useful and interactive with the release of the technology preview of the Streetside Photos application. This tech preview mines geo-tagged photos from Flickr, and relates them to our Streetside imagery to show images matched to its original spatial context. Why is this cool? You’re now able to see what that club looks like at night (is it really THAT scary?), see if you’re really going to get a good sunset at that B&B you’re looking to book, or check out the crowds on a Saturday morning at Pike Place Market in Seattle or get a view of the same market from decades prior. As more people share imagery, our challenge is to reunite those photos with where they were taken – again, provide context to the data in the ether. Watch Blaise’s demo to see Streetside Photos in action.

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But we’re not just stopping at the street. Today, we’re also excited to demonstrate integration with the WorldWide Telescope, a project out of Microsoft Research. Once launched, you will be able to walk outside in Streetside mode, look up, and see what’s above – way above – right now where you’re standing. Constellations come to life as you pan – you can even set the time of day so you can see what you’ll see at 9pm – great for exploring with your daughter to get her ready for what she’ll see when the sun goes down.

At the same time as we’re getting more “universal” with World Wide Telescope, we’re also getting more intimate. At TED, Blaise showed the first results of our indoor panoramas work. This will provide an experience identical to Streetside, but won’t be limited to places you can take a vehicle. Whether you’re exploring Seattle’s Pike Place Market, or your favorite theme park, Bing Maps will give you the most immersive experience of the place.  We’ve already given you a taste of this with the integration of 18,000 of them and counting), and you can expect Photosynth and Streetside to converge in a way that allows all of us to document the important places in the world – indoor or outdoor – and explore  them in a completely natural way.

When it comes to Discovering, we launched our “Map Apps” gallery to bring that disconnected data home. From our Twitter, we’re bringing data back to where it can help you discover what’s in a physical area. And sometimes, there’s no substitute for absolute real-time. At TED we also demonstrated live Webcam feeds perfectly which enables real-time video to be overlaid seamlessly on street-level imagery, adding another dimension to the mapping experience. Imagine – you can see how long the line is at Five Guys before you head over for a burger. In the coming year, we think you will be pleasantly surprised with how far Bing takes this new technology. Stay tuned.  

Finally when it comes to Deciding, we’ve just scratched the surface with Bing maps. We introduced innovations around our Opinion Index which lets you see just how good that New Bing Maps Application: Streetside Photos

If you haven’t bought your gift yet, whether for a relative, your favorite pet or your significant other you might be classified as a “Valentine’s Procrastinator.” Not to fear you are not out of time yet. Today is the day (Feb. 10) to shop with Bing cashback to take advantage of some of the last minute insane savings (as long as the shipping  is fast enough). 

Now if you are “still” trying to figure out what to get that loved one you can check out the Bing Valentine’s Day gift guide or tune into Bing video 7 a.m. PST, today (Wednesday February 10) to get advice from the Victoria’s Secret Bombshells. Candance Swanepoel and Erin Heatherton will be giving hot tips on how to impress that special someone on Valentine’s Day and will be answering questions from the MSN and Bing fans in an exclusive webcast.

If you are a Valentine’s Day Procrastinator or not we hope Bing cashback can help you find that perfect gift just in time for the big day.

Kristin Meldahl – Bing

I first started working on the homepage during the Summer Olympics in Beijing. We had just launched the image on the homepage and 10 days later jumped to updating the picture twice a day. It was a chaotic time, but truly some of the most fun I’ve ever had at a job!

With the Vancouver Olympics fast approaching, the homepage team decided to change up our regular programming a bit to bring the excitement of the Olympics to you. Starting this weekend, we’ll update the homepage with images from the events three times a day. And while we’ll show some winners, this won’t be the standard parade of medalists. We’re out to show the great moments from the games: the alpine skier from Ghana, the debut of Ski Cross as an Olympic event, anything to do with curling—all with the stunning imagery that you’ve come to expect on the Bing homepage.

As always, we’ll have the hotspots giving you lots of fun facts about the images. And if you just want to see the caption for a photo, point your mouse on the copyright symbol. For more info about fully exploring the homepage, see Welcome Home.

And for a full recap of all the Olympics features Bing has to offer, see Bing and MSN: your Olympics hub.

Enjoy!

Stephanie Horstmanshof

Editorial lead

We’re T-4.5 days from the opening ceremonies of the 2010 Winter Olympics Games. Who are you excited to see flying down the men’s downhill course or dancing across the ice? Will you be rooting for your homeland or just your favorite event? Do you know anyone crazy enough to get on one of those luge sleds? Making the trip to Canada or are you planning on enjoying the games from the comfort of your own home? With only a few days before the games begin, it’s time to get prepared.

Whether you’re at the games or watching from afar, we want you to get the most out of the 2010 Winter Olympics. Today, NBC Universal announced their collaboration with MSN and Bing to deliver exclusive digital event coverage to fans online and on-demand. This year’s Olympic coverage is going to be unlike any other year with thousands of hours of video, extensive event recaps, updated medal count info, and commentary from the games, brought to you exclusively by NBCOlypmics.com, MSN and Bing. Check out the MSN blog for more details about MSN’s amazing work with NBCOlympics.com on MSN. 

Bing will be a great place to get quickly to the important Olympics details.  Just search Winter Olympics on Bing for important dates, links to the schedule, breaking news, all brought to you conveniently in the form of an Instant Answer.

You can also search for your favorite athlete for a quick look at their country, sport and links to bio, videos and photos.

Not familiar enough with the Olympic teams or specific event to start your search? No problem. We’ve also created Winter Games themed Visual Search Galleries, like the image below, so you can explore the athletes and events visually and sort by sport, gender or date of the event. 

In addition to providing users with the ultimate search tool for exploring NBCOlympics.com on MSN content, Bing lets users experience and explore Vancouver and Whistler through our
We’re looking forward to bringing the best of the Olympic games, right to you!

Last week we had you tune in to Jason Calacanis‘ web show TWIST to watch Stefan announce the Free T-shirt Friday theme. I was worried no one would catch his #FTF plug to win a free t-shirt or the copy of Brian Solis’s book “Putting the Public Back into Public Relations” but alas, there were a few of you loyal #FTF players that came through.

The winners for last week were @brmore and @jrameau. Please make sure you DM us @bing with your shirts size and mailing address.

• @brmore: @bing The best and worst airport food http://bit.ly/bYQ5qF (expand) #FTF (WINNER OF THE BOOK!)
• @jrameau: @bing The Terminal Tom Hanks http://bit.ly/bOMJ8U (expand) #FTF

This week we sit down with Stefan (finally sans apron) to discuss some of your questions from the forums and to share this week’s Free T-shirt Friday theme which may have something to do with a small sports event this weekend.

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Happy Friday!

Kristin Meldahl, Bing

Facebook has been a close and valued partner of Microsoft for a number of years. We have worked together on several fronts all designed to create great experiences and services for our users. As we begin 2010, we are stepping up that collaboration yet again.

Here is a sense for what we are up to:

First, we have deepened our joint work together on web search to provide even more compelling experiences to Facebook users with Bing. As part of this expanded cooperation in search, our two companies will soon provide Facebook users with a more complete search experience by providing full access to great Bing features beyond a set of links, including richer answers combined with tools that help customers make faster, smarter decisions.

Second, we are extending our cooperation outside the US, bringing the Bing-Facebook search integration to the more than 400 million people using Facebook around the world.

Lastly, we made the mutual decision that Facebook would take over responsibility for selling display advertisements on its own site. We have been working together on advertising for a long time, creating the best experience for Facebook users and advertisers. Given the kinds of advertisements that make sense within a product as unique as Facebook, it just made more sense for them to take the lead on this part of their advertising strategy. MS will continue to provide search advertisements to Facebook.

Bing will continue to exclusively power the web search results on Facebook. This change will also enable Microsoft to continue its focus on driving strong performing campaigns across our own social media and communications tools, including Windows Live Messenger and Hotmail, and via rich content environments across MSN and Xbox Live.

This is an exciting time for us as we continue to work with Facebook on great new experiences for customers.  As you know, Bing has been very focused on helping customers make important decisions. We believe that counsel from family and friends can be a big part of that process. Going deeper in web search experiences with Facebook, in addition to the collaboration we announced last October about bringing public data from Facebook’s API into the search experience, will enable us to do great things together for our customers.

You will start to see the fruits of our expanded relationship show up in the Facebook experience over the weeks and months ahead. We are very excited about the work we have done with Facebook, and are really looking forward to the amazing things we can together do for our mutual customers in the months and years ahead.

Jon Tinter – General Manager, Bing