One of the many Bing announcements today focused on an even deeper integration of Facebook data into Bing’s search results and rankings. For a couple months now, Bing has integrated “liked” content from Facebook into its search results in a distinct content area like this: But soon, Bing says it will show (to U.S. users […]
For a couple months now, Bing has integrated “liked” content from Facebook into its search results in a distinct content area like this:
But soon, Bing says it will show (to U.S. users only for now) which individual pages/URLs have been liked by your Facebook friends right inline as part of the regular search results — not just in a separate box/display like you see above. Since it hasn’t been rolled out yet, you can see a screenshot of the new feature on Bing’s blog post.
And it’s not just about search results display: As Greg Sterling liveblogged earlier, Bing says your friends’ Facebook activity is “influencing ranking on Bing and will lead to personalized search rankings.”
The risk here is that social media “gaming” will lead to clutter in Bing’s search results, and with all the “like” scripts and bots that are in use, that’s a real possibility. On the other hand, this is an opt-in feature and disconnecting your Facebook account with Bing turns off the addition of “likes” in your Bing search results.