Microsoft Signs A Deal With Encyclopedia Britannica

Online, June 29, 2012 (Newswire.com) - With the goal to provide the users of Bing with rich and relevant search results in a quicker, more organized manner, Microsoft has signed a deal with Encyclopedia Britannica recently. The deal allows Microsoft to incorporate results from Britannica Online straight to the Bing search engine. In other words, the deal will enable the Bing users to get a refined insight on the searched topics by merging them along with information from the Encyclopedia. According to Microsoft's sources, if any relevant results from Britannica are found during a search, the users will be able to see a small box that will contain the results summarizing the facts and features of the subjects or topics. Along with this, users will also be able to see pertinent links and information from sources like, Wikipedia, Qwiki and Freebase.

The deal, which came into existence soon after Britannica decided to shun off its print edition and go online, is perceived as a reaction to Google's new "Knowledge Graph" by the IT analysts. It is also said that 'Knowledge Graph', which has been playing a vital role in pulling out significant information, facts, stories, stats, etc., about the search terms from various sources in the Google's search engine is going to face a stiff competition from Bing in the face of ongoing improvements.

However, during a test drive after the agreement was signed, it was found that Britannica results did not pop up in each and every search term; instead a summary box appeared only when an encyclopedia link was visible to a particular search. Moreover, the box was not seen as the top result. It appeared as an ordinary link. On the other hand, Google's 'Knowledge Graph' tries to encompass all relevant results in each and every search to facilitate the users with a more enhanced search engine experience.