Microsoft’s continuous efforts to turn Bing into a “decision engine” rather than a plain old search engine continues today as the software giant rolls out its search carousel to all US users.
The carousel is designed to bring relevant local search results to the forefront so that users can get to what they’re looking for faster. As soon as access to location information is granted to Bing by the user, food or movie-related queries for example will all make use of the carousel to display local results.
Upon clicking on one of the items on the carousel, Bing will then present all the extra information that may be useful to the user. In the case of food-related searches for example, Bing will display Yelp ratings and reviews, directions to the restaurant, opening hours, direct links to the menu and more. Movie-related searches will as expected display local cinemas showing the movie, show times, cast information, IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes ratings and more.
You can try out the carousel feature for yourself even if you’re not in the US, all you have to do is set the Bing region to the United States. You do this by clicking the settings/gears icon at the top left of the Bing homepage, then clicking the ‘Worldwide’ tab, then selecting ‘United States – English’.
