Microsoft might have been late to the party when it comes to developing top-flight smartphones, mobile devices and search technology. But it’s trying to do the next thing with the release of Bing 1.2, bringing a number of new social media functions to its search client for mobile devices like Apple’s iPhone and iPad.
As CIO Update reports, Bing 1.2 adds combined status updates for users’ various social networking accounts , bringing a new level of personalization and interaction to the mobile search experience.
Another tool lets users take advantage of the iPhone’s camera to scan barcodes on products and also to scan cover art for CDs, DVDs, books, video games and retrieve pertinent information based on the scans.
The Bing update will return many types of information based on those scans — such as reviews, merchants that carry a product, and prices, enabling users to comparison shop using their iPhones.
Microsoft updated its Bing search client for the Apple iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad on Tuesday.
The upgraded client, Bing 1.2, adds combined status updates for users’ Facebook and Twitter accounts within Bing, according to a post on Microsoft’s (NASDAQ: MSFT) Bing Community blog.
“Now when you search for something using our Bing app, you’ll see Web results along with relevant results from your social network. So if you search for a movie, you’ll see movie show times first, then anything your friends may have said about it next,” the blog post said.