I know there are tons and tons of people who have used other search engines and have been comfortable in using the same. Here in this post, I would urge you to try Bing once and look at some of these tips that I use when using Bing. One needs to understand that we are just got started with Bing and there can be other interesting tips you as a reader might be interested in sharing. Feel free to drop a comment and it will be really useful to others who will read the post in the future. As we talk of Bing is actually a decision engine and works beyond the search ...
#1 – Get your weather forecast
In the search box, type the name of the city followed by weather or forecast. Worked like gem when I used:
Bangalore Forecast
Bangalore weather
Start searching for your city... As we are on this topic, you will be amazed sometimes what the results can be – for instance I tried "movies Bangalore PVR" and I got instant access to location of PVR on Forum Mall.
#2 - Convert from one unit to another
In the Bing search box, type the quantity, followed by in, followed by the conversion. A typical example would be –
5 KM in miles
37 Celsius in fahrenheit
Gives you an answer of conversion of 3.106... miles. Very useful...
#3 – Do Mathematic Calculations
Don't let this example reach your children J. They will use this feature to finish their homework... Just on the search box –
7+3/1-(5*4)
Gives an answer as -10 ... As simple as it gets ... or get geekier with
sqrt 9 gives 3
17% of 81 gives you 13.77
#4 – Get better: Solve Equations
Again an extension from the previous tip and much more powerful...
5x=29 gives 5.8
2z^3 + 6z + 10 = 40 gives 2.06
#5 – Related Search
When you use Bing, just on your left bar is a column called as "Related Search". This is really powerful and has interesting recommendations. Like on a Video search –
You get length as an option
Or Size as an option and many more ...
As we are on the topic of video's you also get "Live preview" and just try to hover over the video and if you search images, check the AJAX implementation that gets images in batches as you are browsing ... These I felt were really cool.
#6 – Get results with associated filetypes
By using the "contains:" you can sites that contain links to the filetype you are asking. A typical use is like –
A R Rehman contains:mp3
#7 – Get feeds
If you are interested in getting feeds for a search topic, just type –
feed:cricket
And interestingly you will get rss syndications. I loved this as I typed it today I got to know the scores for the matches that are running today from MSN.
#8 – Check if Bing lists your site
I try to find out if Bing has listed my website. A simple test will be –
url:ExtremeExperts.com
returns 1 row confirming the listing. You can do the same thing on your websites, blogspace or other online assets.
#9 – Track your DHL Package
This was interesting for me. Just type the tracking number and get direct access –
DHL 3811162040
It gets you one link where you can use it directly for tracking.
#10 – Include or Exclude Keywords
This was simple, just use AND and OR keywords to include or exclude words explicitly. A typical use is –
VINOD AND KUMAR
By default all the words are AND (in caps) and you can also use other mechanisms of grouping like parentheses (), quotation marks ", NOT + -, AND &, OR |.
#11 – Explore what is hot and searched now
Quickly see what's popular in the region and across the Web using Microsoft's exclusive xRank technology. Combining raw Web searches with our ranking formula, you can quickly see what's hot and what's moving across the world. Today as I move to : http://www.bing.com/xrank/ I can see it is "Katrina Kaif" who has moved by 2 ranks in the past one month as search ... J
#12 – Remove Background Image
I have got responses from many asking if we can remove the image. Well, you have a choice ... Just bookmark - http://www.bing.com/?rb=0 for simplicity. If you personally ask me, I wouldn't recommend this as there are wonderful information one will get via these images of various destinations. If you Binged us on Aug-15th we had a wonderful picture of Mysore Palace and some history of the same. So there is knowledge and information even before you search.
Happy Binging!!! Have fun!!! Thanks for reading this far ... And do share your favourite features...
PS: This by anyway is not an exhaustive list of features but representative of what I felt were nice...