Microsoft is looking to make Bing as smart as possible with a new experimental feature that attempts to predict the outcome of a given event. Microsoft is basing this on a variety of different “signals” such as search queries and social input from Facebook and Twitter.
“Today we are bringing these insights directly to our search results pages. Based on a variety of different signals including search queries and social input from Facebook and Twitter, we are unveiling an experiment we’ve built to give you our prediction of the outcome of a given event. For example, our first iteration, live on Bing.com today, attempts to predict which contestants are most likely to be eliminated or move on to the next round of voting shows like The Voice,American Idol and Dancing With The Stars,” Microsoft stated in an official blog post.
Here is how this feature works. Head over to Bing.com and search for “The Voice” or a current contestant on the show. Based on your search, Bing will display a carousel that provides a prediction on how is on top and who will likely be eliminated.
“The central idea behind the direct approach is that winners and losers correspond to popularity. In broad strokes, we define popularity as the frequency and sentiment of searches combined with social signals and keywords. Placing these signals into our model, we can predict the outcome of an event with high confidence,” Microsoft explains.
Head over to Bing.com and give this feature a try!
