Bing! I can never get enough of that commercial, and would really appreciate it if they added that in as a new feature when they update the app next. But to get down to things, Bing is a great app for all to use if you use your iPhone/iPod touch to search the web. The app really utilizes the features of your device to bring you one awesome search engine.
What You Can Expect
The Bing app is bringing a hard packing punch to the table with a powerful search engine. You can search for anything from sites and images to movies and directions to the nearest cinema. With great graphics and an incredibly easy to use navigation, Bing is probably darn close to the ladder of top apps you must have. I’ll get to the best part later in the review. But for now, you can just imagine sitting at home in the US or Canada and enjoying some TV. Suddenly, you want to know if new episodes of “Doctor Who” will be airing near you soon. You can just pop on to your iPhone and search Bing for any “Who” results and hope for the best. As a frequent searcher of the Doctor, I could easily pull my history and just one click to my results. The results do not show up any different than they would for the web, but would you expect them to? I’d honestly expect a downgrade being that it’s on such a small screen. But alas, it brings in the full features of the search engine.
The Best Thing About the App
The best thing about the app is being able to use your voice! There is an option available that allows you to literally speak what you’re looking for. So, for instance, I wanted to look up how many times the Phillies beat the Yankees in spring training, I could speak in to the iPhone (or iPod touch microphone attachment) and say something like, “Phillies 2010 pre-season record” and it’ll give me the best search results based on that query! This is an incredible feature, and it’s really astonishing to think about it. This is the evolution of moving from typing to actually speaking to your computer
Looking to the Future
The future of Bing is unclear right now. But there is definitely some room for improvement. It would be cool to have a better Bookmark design for easier access to all of your history and recently visited searches. Nothing is every perfect in any situation, so there can definitely be some hot fixes to some of their features.
The Gist of It
Overall, the Bing app is a great one for the ages. I’ve used it almost everyday when I was out and about and really enjoyed the ease of searching for whatever I wanted. Whether it was how I actually make a Caffe Vanilla Frappucino, or how often Doctor Who will be on in the States, I liked being able to have the easy search engine available to me. And the price can’t be beat at FREE! What more can you ask for in a great app such as Bing?