10 Tricks for Finding Anything on Bing

A search engine is a search engine is a search engine, and Google is the search engine, or so people think, but there are some features that Bing utilizes that can be used to augment, if not replace, the Google search. Bing touts itself as being a more “intuitive” tool, and uses logical connections to broaden or deepen capabilities. The following points are both for people who have never tried Bing as well as for those people who already use the engine.

1. First Things First – Take the introductory tour for Bing, which can be found at: www.discoverbing.com .
2. & – Using the ampersand symbol or typing AND in the search box will get you results that include both search terms individually and together. For example, if you type “Internet & Sports” you will turn up sites containing “Internet” and sites containing “Sports” and sites that contain both.
3. Using the “+”symbol – Using the “+” symbol will help you refine your search. For example, if you type “Internet + Sports” you will turn up all sites that connect the two subjects.
4. Searching – Bing can be added to Firefox and Internet Explorer and can be utilized without having to go to the Bing homepage.
5. Images – Searching and researching through images may be part of a job; if so, Bing has an image search that can be added to Internet Explorer.
6. Conversions – Handy when traveling, Bing has a conversion feature that can tell you things like how far five-miles is in kilometers (8.04672 km) or how much $5 is in pounds sterling (3.101005).
7. Finance – You can type a company name or ticker symbol in the search box and get immediate information. Example: type “Walmart Stock”, and you will not only get the closing price of a single share but will also see the entire day’s range, as well as a performance graph that spans three months.
8. Homework Helper – You might not want to let the kids know about this one until they’re done with their homework, but if you want to know the square root of 13, simply type “sqrt13” in the search box, and up pops “3.60555128”.
9. Auto-suggestion – “Auto-suggest” is not the psychological method utilized in hypnosis, rather, a tool that automatically provides similar terms that Bing recognizes are related to the term you type in the search box.
10. ANYTHING – If you actually typed “ANYTHING” in all capital letters, you’d find out that UK designer and the Japanese company, “Suikosha” had collaborated on a line of stationery products.

Some people are entrenched in whatever for of search they now use, but it may prove valuable to enhance search methodology by using more than one search engine, and Bing may be one of those additional tools.

Taken From Dial Up