Aug 13
22
Regardless of what you might think of the Bing search engine, Microsoft and Bing are doing something right.
On August 21st, 2013 Microsoft and Bing announced that they will provide school boards in the United States with access to a special version of Bing. will feature ad-free search results and an automatic filter that blocks adult content and enhances privacy protections.
This is a great public relations effort from Bing. After all, which school principal, teacher, or parent wouldn’t want a safer set of search results for their kids. As Microsoft added in the article  “When students use Google for searches in school, they are shown ads that can distract from their studies.”
There is a hidden benefit to this for Microsoft. In school districts where they are successful in getting Bing Search For Schools implemented, students using school computers will naturally be required to use Bing for all their search queries. The likely outcome is they’ll get used to using Bing instead of Google. They might even start to notice the differences in search results and in features which they may or may not like more. In the cases where they like the Bing experience better Microsoft will have won over a new regular user who, under the right circumstances, could become a highly sought after “Unpaid Brand Advocate“. They’ll start telling their friends, teachers and parents about their Bing experience. As their education and eventually their employment careers progress, Bing might become their primary search engine of choice and, that of their colleagues.
Microsoft has helped spread the word about this effort via social media. I saw the article and as I usually do, I shared it on twitter. I quickly received a response back from Matt Wallaert. Matt, according to his , is “Masterminding #BingForSchools”. By responding to my simple sharing tweet, Matt got my attention and in part motivated me to write this blog post as I’m always looking for good uses of social to write about. This in turn, further helps Matt’s efforts to spread the word about #BingForSchools, and Microsoft’s efforts to seed the minds of millions of potential future users.
I tip my hat to them for both a great concept and a great use of social for spreading the word.
Jim Hedger
Jim Hedger is an organic SEO and digital marketing specialist. Jim has been involved in the online marketing industry since 1998 and a SEO since 1999. Best known as a broadcaster, interviewer, content writer and search industry commentator, Jim is a frequent conference speaker and organizer. He hosts the search focused radio show Webcology on WebmasterRadio.FM and is a WebmasterRadio.FM conference interviewer. Jim brings a wealth of knowledge, experience, passion and creative thinking to each project. Preferring a teamwork approach, Jim strives to inform and train his clients and their staff to run and maintain their own search and social media efforts.
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