Bing Archives - The Technology Cafe

New: Disavow Links

Bing Webmaster Tools recently added a new tool to allow Webmasters to disavow links pointed at their websites. If a link points to your site, and you don’t like the association for whatever reason, this tool allows you to let Bing know. Webmasters should not expect a dramatic change in rankings after using this feature, but it can help Bing to better understand intent.

To use the new tool, log into your Bing Webmaster Tools account and click on the Disavow Links option in the navigation under Configure My Site. Webmasters can choose to list inbound links to disavow at the page level (disavowing just a single page), the folder level (any links coming from pages contained in a folder) or at the domain level (all links from the domain noted).

Update: SEO Analyzer^beta

The Bing team has also made a few updates to the SEO Analyzer tool. First, Bing has addressed several time-out issues they were seeing due to the tool honoring robots.txt directives which websites had in place. After our update, the SEO Analyzer tool will no longer honor robots.txt directives, allowing them to fetch, scan and report on the page as intended. This change only affects SEO Analyzer as Bingbot will continue to honor robots.txt directives for your site.

Second, they have now enabled SEO Analyzer to follow redirects on your site. If you enter a URL into the tool to generate an SEO report, we’ll list any redirects they see on the path to the content. Check out the orange box below to see how they appear for yourself.

Manage your online brand with Brandify

Sponsored by Microsoft, Brandify is a new service designed to help small and mid-size businesses reach more customers by establishing and maintaining a positive online reputation.
Sign up at Brandify.com and in about 90 seconds Brandify will discover and begin to analyze your existing online brand and reputation and give you a unique score for how your brand is doing.

Get started today and Brandify will help to:

Uncover strengths and weaknesses by evaluating public data about your business from major data sources including Yelp, Facebook and Twitter, among others
Give you recommendations that are specifically tailored for your business such as, for example, if you should create a profile on a specific social site or online directory
Help you to stay informed about online activity that can materially impact your brand including insights on local competition and even updates on recent customer reviews and check-ins for your business
Connect you with a community where you can explore online strategies, get advice and engage in discussions with fellow small business owners

Translation Services for Webmasters

Do you have international traffic to your website, but don’t have the time or resources to translate your site? You can quickly and easily add the same high quality translation service to your site that powers billions of translations every day across Microsoft products including Bing, Office, and Internet Explorer, as well as, sites such as Facebook, TripAdvisor and eBay. Grab the free Translator Widget for your site.

The same translation service is also available as an API through both the Windows Azure Marketplace or Microsoft Volume Licensing. It is offered as a subscription service based on the volume of characters translated per month. The initial 2 million characters a month are free, after which a fee is charged. As an added bonus, implementation of the API also allows you to solicit suggestions for better translations through Microsoft Translator’s Collaborative Translation Framework.

Bing Maps imagery release and improved venue maps

Don’t forget that the power of Bing Maps and its expanding base of imagery is available to you. Check out how you could utilize the Bing Maps API to implement mapping solutions for your website and read below about our recent updates.

Imagery Release:
In June Microsoft announced the publication of our largest imagery release to date! This includes new Satellite imagery as well as Global Ortho photography with a combined total of 165 terabytes of new imagery data live on Bing Maps.
Some samples of the new imagery:

Hagia Sophia Istanbul, Turkey

Tongass National Forest Glacier Bay N.P. and Preserve, Alaska

Visit Bing Maps World Tour App to view full satellite imagery coverage

Microsoft followed the June imagery release with a release of 215 terabytes of new Birds Eye data in July! This oblique perspective of the world is a special feature of Bing Maps. Our latest publication included data that spanned across the United States and features certain areas in Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Tokyo.

Some samples of the new Bird’s Eye:

Virgin Valley Ranch Road Humboldt County, Nevada

Denver International Airport Denver, Colorado

The detail map above displays the total coverage of Bird’s Eye imagery that is live on Bing Maps.

Bing Venue Maps goes international

Whether you live in Poland, Spain, Russia, the US, or almost anywhere in-between, you will now be able to explore your local shopping mall through Bing maps – helping you to locate the stores you are looking for and find the closest services and facilities.

Through Microsoft’s partnership with Nokia, Bing Maps has boosted its Venue Map coverage in the US and internationally to include more than 2,700 Venue Maps across the world. This update is primarily focused on shopping malls across North America, Europe, and Asia.

All new Venue Maps are now available through Bing Maps and, in the US and UK, are also available on Windows Phone Maps (7.5), m.bing.com/maps, and the Bing app for iPhone. Simply zoom in over your favorite mall to enter the experience. You can also browse all the available Venue Maps for airports, casinos and shopping districts at www.bing.com/maps/venues.

Centro Commerciale Fiordaliso, Italy

Europe Mall, Russia

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People with entrepreneurial backgrounds understand that the hardest part of creating a startup isn’t raising money, it’s making things real. This is the idea behind Bing Fund. The new Fund believes that combining your fresh insights with Microsoft’s experience, expertise and tremendous reach creates a unique formula for success.

Bing Fund is looking for startups that are building online or mobile experiences that incorporate fresh insights. Participants are not required to use Microsoft technology.
The company enrolls startups into program on an ongoing basis, investing in and working with a small number at any given time.

Here’s what we offer:

Subsidized use of unique APIs from Bing’s data ecosystem
The opportunity to access certain technology assets developed by Microsoft Research
Assistance from Bing Fund team members who specialize in design, engineering, marketing, and building businesses
Consultations with Subject Matter Experts at Microsoft, some of whom are world experts in their areas
Exposure to Microsoft executives
Connections with our partners and customers
Funding
Co-workspace for startups located in the Seattle area.
Each company’s Intellectual Property and products, of course, remain their own.

Bing Fund is an angel fund with an incubator program, founded by entrepreneurs, sponsored by Bing, and backed by the experience, expertise, and resources of Microsoft searching for great talent that is innovating online to solve big problems and create amazing new experiences.

If you have an inspiring vision and you want to go big, Bing Fund can help. The fund offers great technology, as well as some of the world’s foremost experts in web and mobile experiences, engineering, and business development, to help entrepreneurs to grow their innovations and bring them to a wider audience.

The company is inviting promising startups based in the U.S. to work with us for at least four months. Instead of following a class format, they will evaluate and accept candidates on an ongoing basis. Here’s what we’re looking for:

Startups that are building online or mobile experiences that incorporate fresh insights.
We want startups with both inspirational vision and ability to execute
A working prototype, preferably a site or application that is already live (i.e. people can sign up to use it) and gaining momentum
A compelling plan that describes the problem being solved, a general idea of the market potential/competitive landscape, and unique market advantages

As a startup in Bing Fund, you will receive subsidized usage of unique APIs from Bing’s data ecosystem and the opportunity to access certain technology assets developed by Microsoft Research. Bing Fund team members who specialize in design, engineering, marketing, and building businesses will be on hand to support every step of the way, and if you have a particular technical or business challenge, we’ll connect you with the right Subject Matter Experts (SMEs).

Additionally, with help with funding, by offering a convertible note and making introductions to strategic investors. Your IP and product, of course, remain yours, even if we give input and assistance.

Participants in the Bing Fund who are local to the Seattle area will also be welcome to use Microsoft’s co-workspace in Bellevue, where they will have daily contact with the Bing Fund team, including seasoned entrepreneurs like Rahul Sood, the founder of VooDoo PC. You will also be able to interact with other hard working startups sharing the space.

You can contact the BingFund team via the website and tell a little about what you’re working on.

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Posts Selected From the Category "Bing"

Microsoft Bing Launches New Webmaster Tools

Microsoft Bing Starts Incubator Fund : Helping Entrepreneurs Grow Startups