Bing and the world Bing’s with you, Search and you Google alone…

I must admit I wasn’t a real huge fan of the search results that I got with Live. But I think someone was listening.

We introduced Bing to the world and I have to tell ya, it’s all it’s cracked up to be and more.  I love the instant answers part of it. Not just for search but for things like flight schedules and even math equations if you are so inclined.

Bing is so much more than a search engine. It’s an Answer Engine. For example here is some of the stuff you can do with the Instant Answers features:

Find instant answers

Need a quick answer instead of a hundred links to websites that might contain your answer? Use our Instant Answers to get what you need fast.

Instant answers are available in the following categories:

Conversions

Convert units of measurements for distance, weight, time, volume, and temperature. You can also include mathematical expressions in some conversion questions to get a calculated, converted answer.

To see the conversion answer in action, try some of these examples:

  • How many seconds in a day
  • What is 50 degrees F in Celsius
  • How many kilometers in a light year

Flight Deals

Get quick access to flight deals and cheap tickets.

To see the flight deals answer in action, try some of these examples:

  • Deals on specific routes: flights from Seattle to Boston
  • Deals from a specific city: flights from San Diego
  • Deals to a specific city: flights to Boston

Flight Status

Make sure you're not late to the airport using the flight status answer.

To see the flight status answer in action, try some of these examples:

  • flight status for United
  • flight status
  • ua820

Hotels

Find a great place to stay wherever you're going with the hotels answer.

To see the hotels answer in action, try some of these examples:

  • Vegas hotels
  • hotels in Orlando
  • San Francisco hotels

Math

Find basic mathematical operators, exponents, roots, factorials, modulo, percentages, logarithms, trigonometry functions, and mathematical constants. In the search box, type the equation that you want to solve or the constant that you want to find the value of.

The following examples show some of the calculations and conversions that you can type in the search box.

  • Calculations: Get answers to arithmetic problems. For example:

    • 5+3/1-(6*2)
    • sqrt 9
    • sin 100 * 50
    • 32% of 54

  • Equation solver: Solve simple algebraic equations. For example:

    • 4x=19
    • 2y^2 + 5y + 10 = 40
    • Solve 2x + 7 = 4
Note

For more mathematical symbols that you can use in expressions and equations, see Mathematical notations for use with Math Answers

Financial quotes

  1. Go to http://www.bing.com/.
  2. In the search box, type ticker symbols (Letters and numbers that are used to represent companies in stock markets.) for up to nine companies, funds, or indexes, followed by stock or quote.
  3. Click the search button Search or press ENTER.

Statistical information

  1. Go to http://www.bing.com/.
  2. In the search box, type what you want to find. For example, population of China, or cars in US.
  3. Click the search button Search or press ENTER.

So of course now I’m off to investigate just how much information can be found out on a person or company through this very powerful Answer Engine. Stay Tuned.