Hasta La Gadget!

Remember the other day when we reported that the team who manages Microsoft co-founder’s considerable stock in the company suggested that Microsoft should spin off their Bing search engine and Xbox gaming business? It would seem as though they are not alone in thinking that, and Nomura analyst Rick Sherlund seems to agree with that idea as well, but who is Rick Sherlund and why would his comments be that important? Well Sherlund used to work at Goldman and was acting as point when they took Microsoft public, with some describing him as a long-time friend of Bill Gates, so he might have a bit more clout than your average analyst.

According to Sherlund, he states that Microsoft is currently losing anywhere between $3 billion to $4 billion from both Bing and Xbox combined. While losing money from Bing might be possible, especially given that it would be pretty hard to compete against the likes of Google, the idea of Xbox losing money for Microsoft is hard to believe. In any case he seems to believe that selling or even giving away Bing, or spinning off Xbox or selling the brand would be the best course for the company because as it stands both brands are putting a $0.30-$0.40 drag on Microsoft’s EPS. Sherlund states, “The even bigger issue is that this business does not drive traction in smartphones or tablets and does not contribute to PC demand or enterprise products. They are not strategic and are a costly sideshow.”

Yet Another Analyst Thinks Microsoft Should Sell Off Bing And Xbox original content from Ubergizmo.

Halloween is today around the world, meaning there are millions of children walking the streets of their neighborhood looking for some free candy in exchange for dressing up in costumes. Halloween is also a time where people appreciate a good scary movie as there’s no better time to have the bejesus scared out of you than this time of year. If you use Bing for all of your searching needs, you probably noticed they have made over their homepage to pay homage to a wide variety of horror films. (more…)

Bing Gets In On The Halloween Spirit With Homepage Horror Homages original content from Ubergizmo.

It does seem as though Microsoft’s Bing has just received a spanking new speech recognition control as well as an updated Bing OCR and Translator controls. The new Bing Speech Recognition Control for Windows 8 and 8.1 have been released, where it will be accompanied by updates to the Bing Optical Character Recognition Control for Windows 8.1 as well as Bing Translator Control for Windows 8.1, where it would allow developers to be more knowledgeable, natural, and aware applications. Speech Recognition for Windows 8.0 and 8.1 would mean you will be able to simply speak to your handset for a truly hands-free experience. This lets you interact more naturally with your devices to dictate emails, look for the latest news, and navigate through your apps among others.

Should you be a Windows Phone developer, you would be familiar with the speech recognition within Windows Phone. It takes as little as ten lines of C# + XAML or JavaScript + HTML for you to place a SpeechRecognizerUX control in your application, in addition to a microphone button as well as a TextBlock, accompanied by the required code to support them. Whenever you tap or click the mic, you will hear a blip, or “earcon”, which is the signal that you can speak there and then. [Press Release]

Bing Gets New Speech Recognition Control original content from Ubergizmo.

It was just yesterday that we brought you word where Facebook has finished up the removal of an old search setting, “Who can look up your Timeline by name.” Well, this time around, we have news of search as well, except that it will be Microsoft playing the fiddle. From today onward, Microsoft’s Bing search engine will make it possible for folks to share more personal information about themselves with the help of Bing’s Snapshot feature.

Among such information that can be shared include your employment history, in addition to some of the more prominent social posts that hail from Twitter and Instagram. This particular integration with Klout would be a whole lot more than just skin deep, as it depends on the user him/herself to determine the level of detail that they want depicted to the entire world whenever one is searched for in Bing. Before you are able to take advantage of this though, you will first need to have both Klout and LinkedIn accounts in order to come up with your very own Snapshot.

Something tells me that employers of the future might be using Bing at times to figure out more details about their future employees, and hopefully there will not be much propping up of one’s personal details and achievements beforehand to provide employers with a fair image prior to the interview.

Microsoft To Depict Social And Career Info Of People In Bing Results original content from Ubergizmo.

Back in 2012, Microsoft launched a Bing It On campaign which basically compared Google’s search to their own search, Bing. According to Microsoft’s claims at that time, users preferred Bing’s search to Google’s search by a ratio of 2:1. This was a surprising claim given that Google, at least on the surface, would be much preferred due to their tight integration with all their products, and their reputation of being around longer than Bing. Well it turns out Microsoft’s claims might not be as accurate as they claim, according to Yale Law School professor, Ian Ayres, who wrote on Freakonomics that the study he and his students conducted actually yielded very different results.

According to Ayres, “To the contrary of Microsoft’s claim, 53% of subjects preferred Google and 41% Bing (6% of results were ‘ties’) […] This is not even close to the advertised claim that people prefer Bing ‘nearly two-to-one.’  It is misleading to have advertisements that say people prefer Bing 2:1 and also say join the millions of people who’ve taken the Bing-It-On challenge, if, as in our study, the millions of people haven’t preferred Bing at a nearly a 2:1 rate.” Those are some very bold claims and Microsoft has since responded to Ayres’ findings, stating that a faulty methodology was used by Ayres which explains how he got the results he did, but what do you guys think?

Bing It On Numbers Disputed, Microsoft Responds original content from Ubergizmo.