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Bing — A Decision Engine for the Way You Search

Whether you need to find the free throw average of an NBA All-Star or the name of a good after-hours plumber, the answer traditionally has been as close as your nearest Internet search engine. Microsoft Corp.’s own studies have found that the act of searching is nearly as habitual as brushing your teeth or tapping your leg in a boring meeting.

However, in just over a decade’s time the number of Web sites has increased exponentially.

The availability of such a vast amount of information has drawn more people online to make decisions, whether day-to-day tasks or major business and household purchases. But it’s also led to search engines that can provide too much information, and page after page of irrelevant or extraneous search results. In other words, even though the type, scope and amount of content on the Web has changed radically in the last decade, the tools we use to find information and make decisions have stayed basically the same.

Microsoft realized the status quo left much to be desired, so in 2008 we conducted a series of studies to determine common online practices, to understand how people are using the Internet and search, and to find the areas most in need of improvement. Among our findings among people who participated in the studies are the following:

- Users are dissatisfied: Search results for 50 percent of the queries fail to meet the consumer’s needs (they are either abandoned or refined), and 35 percent of people express dissatisfaction with search today — and this percentage increases when they move into task-focused activities (such as getting local information or finding a product).

- Users want help searching: 72 percent of people surveyed said current search results are too disorganized, nearly half of all search queries are a repeat of a previous search, and half the searches are eventually refined.

- Users are focused more on tasks and decisions: 66 percent of people reported using search engines to make decisions, and long sessions are becoming more common, with more than 46 percent of searchers’ time being spent on sessions more than 30 minutes in length.

Despite all these issues, people are turning to search more often for help making decisions. They are using search more often (50 percent of people surveyed), more frequently and for tasks that are not well served with a list of links. Microsoft understands both the challenges searchers face and the critical nature of search in their lives, and from this understanding the Microsoft search engine Bing was born.

A New Engine to Meet Customer Needs

Microsoft wanted to peel away the layers standing between a user and information. We wanted to remove the element of luck so often required to find what you’re looking for the first time around. And we wanted to help users harness that information and take it to the next level: making informed decisions.

In a world of excessive choice and too much information, it’s often difficult to make the right decision. What you need is more than just a search engine; you need a decision engine that provides useful tools to help you get what you want fast, rather than simply presenting a list of Web links. Bing is such a decision engine. It provides an easy way to make more informed choices. It organizes popular results by category to help you get the answers you’re looking for without having to guess at the right way to formulate your query. And built right into Bing is a set of intelligent tools to help you accomplish important tasks such as buying a product, planning a trip or finding a local business.

Following is a highlight of the key design goals for “Bing and related features that collectively are designed to make Internet search more enjoyable, less time consuming and more decision-driven.

- First, a great decision engine needs to deliver great results. The fundamentals still have room to grow. Relevance is still the top thing people care about. Users are becoming more demanding and want one-click access to information whenever possible. In fact, our studies showed that 35 percent of queries are still unsatisfied, and 24 percent are abandoned. There are many ways in which direct access to information can be improved and customers delighted.

- Second, a great engine delivers a more organized experience. People are engaging in sessions, not simple queries — 46 percent of people surveyed said that time spent on search is in queries more than 30 minutes long, close to half of the queries are returns to a previous task, and half still require refinement. In our customer research, users said an organized search experience would be twice as useful to help them find information and accomplish tasks faster.

- Third, an engine of today should simplify tasks and provide insight to inform the many decisions users have to make. Seventy-five percent of people say they use a search engine to inform a decision for product purchase, 62 percent to find a local business or destination, 45 percent to select a flight or hotel, and 43 percent for healthcare research. This is not what traditional search engines are designed to do. As such, those tasks can be tedious and complicated and are an opportunity for Bing to differentiate.

Grounded in this understanding of consumer behavior and needs, we’re pleased to introduce “Bing,” the new decision engine that helps you overcome search overload and quickly make more informed choices.

DELIVERING GREAT RESULTS: PUTTING THE BEST SEARCH RESULTS FORWARD

On the surface, the Bing Home Page may appear similar to others — a single search box as a starting point, surrounded by colorful or currently relevant imagery. But click deeper and you’ll discover so much more.

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Home Page

Searchers often don’t know about the range of content engines can fetch for them. The Home Page, with its rich imagery, informational hotspots, and clear and prominent links for images, video, news and products, helps searchers choose the best scope for their query.

Try it: Hover over one of the hot spots on the Home Page to be taken to a fact you likely didn’t know.

Auto-Suggest

Bing automatically suggests similar terms or common refinements that searchers have used in the past or that Bing knows are related to the term you’re typing.

Try it: Go to , and start typing “mahog” to see how Auto-Suggest can make the task of typing your query easier.

Why: Nearly 50 percent of all queries are refined at some point in the process. People often don’t know what words to use, as evinced by the fact that 30 percent of people use this feature to help them search.

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Best Match

Microsoft applied the same objective to the ease of finding information when it developed Best Match. Rather than getting lost in the midst of all the other search results, Bing makes the best result stand out from all the others. Best Match is designed to bring the most helpful information from the most authoritative sites for your query — a top user request to help prevent disappointment.

For example, suppose you’re looking for the UPS site so you can track that package you’re expecting. After you enter a search query for UPS, Bing delivers the results and highlights the result most closely matching your query at the top, under the heading Best Match. Best Match also has innovative features to help save time and clicks, including the following:

• Customer service numbers and hours of operation for retail and service sites

• Deep search (so you can track that UPS package directly from your search result)

• Sites Like This to help you navigate to other sites similar to your query

• Deep Links so you can easily get to the task you’re trying to perform in the site

• In cases where Bing is nearly sure there is a single, best answer for a query, it hides the Web links to present a clean, clear page that gets you to your destination quickly. Getting to the full Web results page is just a click away.

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Why: Nearly half of all queries are navigational, meaning a person is looking for a particular site or service on the Web. In cases like UPS, 90 percent of the time people are simply going to this site to track a package. We asked how we could make it easier for them to cut through the clicks and complete their task.

Try it: Enter “Target,” “UPS” or “Facebook” in the search box.

Deep Links

Deep Links enable users to see inside the site without having to click into it and learn a new site structure. With “Bing,” we focused on the quantity and quality of Deep Links. And with the exception of the Best Match result, Bing orients Deep Links for the rest of the results horizontally to conserve precious screen real estate, while still providing the direct, deep information access people are asking for.

Why: Deep Links are one of the top drivers of satisfaction on a search results page, in part because they greatly reduce the frequency of bad clicks.

Try it: Enter “Samsung,” “Seattle Times” or “Engadget”

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Quick Previews of Your Results

Bing also includes a new feature that takes the captions you see beneath a search result a step further. Hovering over a search result gives you a better sense of whether a site contains the information you’re looking for without taking up valuable real estate on the search page. For certain sites, Bing also offers Deep Links from within the preview, such as for the City of Seattle Career Center.

Why: Twenty-four percent of clicks result in a rapid click back, meaning that people issue a query, get a results page, click on a link and realize it isn’t what they are looking for and rapidly click back. Offering rich previews was designed to eliminate the need for rapid click backs.

Try it:

1. Enter a search query for “Fourth of July.”

2. Bing will bring up search results, and when you hover over a search result, it displays an orange diamond on the right side of the screen.

3. Moving your cursor to the diamond reveals a window containing a portion of copy from the Web site in question.

4. You can then connect to the Web site from within the preview window by clicking on “Go to the Page.”

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Instant Answers

A great decision engine knows when to get out of your way and when to get you an answer quickly. With that in mind, the Bing team focused on expanding Instant Answers. For example, you might need to pick up your significant other from the airport but want to know if the flight is on time. No problem. Simply enter your flight number (“UA875”), and Bing will pull the most recent flight information and display it prominently in the results, saving you the hassle of going to a separate page. Instant Answers are available for a variety of other topics and scenarios, such as checking stock prices or figuring out the area code of the number that keeps calling your cell phone.

In addition, Bing can often leverage your physical location to answer these queries. No longer do you have to type “Boston Traffic” — simply type “traffic” when you’re sitting at your office and you will be presented with a geographically relevant answer where applicable.

Lastly, Bing introduces Active Answers, which enable you to actually interact with the Instant Answer on the search results page. Think of these as very simple miniapplications that enable you to get what you need without having to make a potentially bad click.

Why: Again, nearly a quarter of clicks result in an almost-instantaneous return to the search results page. If we can reduce the chance of a bad click, consumers can make the most of their online time.

Try it: Enter “traffic,” “weather,” “206,” “MSFT,” “Veterans Day” and “movies.” For Active Answers, try “free stock quotes,” “flight status,” “English dictionary” and then enter an appropriate query into the text box. Note how the answer appears in line with the search results.

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xRank

Quickly see what’s popular in the world and across the Web using Microsoft’s exclusive xRank technology. Combining raw Web searches with our ranking formula, you can quickly see what’s hot and what’s moving across the world. Once you click, you’re presented with graphs of the topic’s historical interest along with a multimedia rich results page.

Try it: Enter “Britney Spears” on the Home Page. Then, click on xRank in the Explore Pane.

A RICHER, MORE ORGANIZED SEARCH EXPERIENCE

As mentioned earlier, roughly 72 percent of people consider search results too disorganized, leading to errant searches, bad links and search sessions that are needlessly long.

To provide some order to the chaos, for many types of queries, Bing analyzes the search results and organizes them so they’re easy to navigate, regardless of how many results it serves up. The result? Web Groups — a categorizing of results that provides structure to what had essentially been a set of blue links.

In addition, a consistent user experience across Web, video, images, shopping, travel, health and other Bing services will prevent users from having to learn a new user interface for each type of query — something many of today’s engines require. In much the same way Microsoft Office brought together different applications under a single user interface, the Bing user experience framework consolidates all the tools people use for search in a single place across the search experience — the Explore Pane located on the left rail.

In the Explore Pane you’ll find a variety of search tools including Quick Tabs — essentially a table of contents for the result categories, Related Searches and Session History, as well as other tools specific to the type of search you’re doing.

Categorized Search and Web Groups

In Bing we are introducing a new concept called Categorized Search. Clearly, not every query fits into a categorization schema, but the results of a large percentage of queries can be categorized to optimize the retrieval of information. Traditionally, many engines have optimized around being a keyword-to-URL mapping tool and designed their user experiences as such. Where they have fallen down is in not enabling a user to explore a topic or find a variety of sources and insights from the Web in an organized manner.

Categorized Search helps users organize their search in a number of ways — namely, by increasing the authority and diversity of results.

• Authority: Categorized Search can boost the delivery of results from authoritative results to users. For health queries, for example, content from the Mayo Clinic or the Center for Disease Control and Prevention can be delivered ahead of a person’s blog or doctor’s Web site.

• Diversity: Often results on a page are overinfluenced by search-engine optimization and tend to be of a particular type. Insurance queries, for example, are dominated by rate compare sites and providers rather than articles and other background information. Categorized Search helps circumvent this tendency by showing results in groups that add diversity to a page.

Categorized Search can also reduce the time and effort of wading through hundreds of links. Bing does this by grouping the top search results into categories known as Web Groups, which are based on the most frequently used refinements for a given search topic. Web Groups appear when a term falls into one of our many covered categories and they change in response to the query. For example, a city term may include weather, airport, restaurants and hotel groups, while a celebrity may include biography, movies, images and video. In addition, Microsoft is integrating our Powerset technology directly into Web Groups where appropriate. Look for the Reference Group to see how Powerset technology makes it easy to get to the most relevant information about the topic you’re researching.

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Why: According to a Microsoft-commissioned survey, only 32 percent of search queries are sufficiently organized, so organizational tools such as Web groups break down the results in a manner relevant to the topic. And Web Groups also help you track the types of results you’re viewing and easily navigate to what you’re looking for while scrolling from page to page of results.

Try it: Enter “Hyundai Sonata,” “U2,” “Robbie Williams,” “diabetes,” “Desperate Housewives” or “megamouth shark” and scroll through the search results. Note how they are categorized into sections. You can expand any of the sections simply by clicking on the header.

The Current List of Web Group Topics

At launch, Bing will deliver Web Groups for a variety of query topics (below). We’ll add additional galleries to this list over time in response to what people are searching for and doing with Bing:

• Automobiles (car models, car manufacturers)

• Travel/local (countries, cities, states and points of interest such as stadiums, parks and passes)

• People (celebrities, athletes, musicians, bands, politicians, etc.)

• Sports (teams from the NBA, NFL, NHL and MLB)

• Health (cancer, diet, over-the-counter and prescription drugs, symptoms, genetic and conditional disease, injury trauma)

• Entertainment (popular television shows and movies)

• Retail (certain electronics such as cameras, cell phones and optics products)

• Events (Oscars, Fourth of July, NASCAR, etc.)

Explore Pane

Running up the left side of the screen, the Explore Pane includes a table of contents of the various Web Groups generated by your query (called Quick Tabs), followed by a list of links to Related Searches and the past searches in your Session History. In addition, the Explore Pane changes its function based on what you’re searching for. As you’ll see in the video and image example, common refinements appear in the pane when searching within those scopes. When querying for news, products or local information, the contents of the Explore Pane change to reflect the most common tasks the user has to perform to get to their answer.

Let’s take a look at the most common set of features that will appear in the Explore Pane when searching.

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Quick Tabs

Quick Tabs offer easy access to the Web Groups relevant to your search. These tabs put the most common refinements for your query term at the top left of the Explore Pane. The Quick Tab elements map to the Web Groups throughout the results page. Clicking on any of the elements will automatically execute a query focused just on the Quick Tab refinement.

Why: We know that nearly half of all queries are refined at some point during a search session. Quick Tabs and Web Groups help users understand the nature of available information at a glance and enable them to easily narrow down their query and get to the results they care about.

Try it:

1. Enter a search query of “San Francisco,” which returns a list of results categorized by several Web Groups, including “map,” “airport,” “restaurants,” “hotels” and “weather.”

2. Click on “airport,” filtering out all the results not related to the San Francisco airport.

3. Then select “images” to narrow the results just to images about San Francisco.

4. Then select “video” to deliver the video experience within the search user interface.

5. Hover over a video to play snippets of the content, or click on the video to watch the clip in its entirety on the hosting Web site.

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Viewing Images and Video in Bing

Unlike many competitors’ sites, the Infinite Scroll feature in Bing eliminates pagination of image search results, so you don’t have to wait for the next page to load.

Bing also allows you to filter the images and video based on a variety of factors. Images can be filtered by size, aspect ratio, color, style and face (whether it’s a close-up, a head-and-shoulders shot, or something entirely different). Video can be filtered by duration, aspect ratio, resolution or source.

There are more than 16 million videos in the Bing index, and it pulls the video from several sources, including MSN, AOL, MTV, ESPN, YouTube, MySpace, Daily Motion, Metacafe and Hulu. Soon you’ll be able to search for and view full-length episodes of CBS programming via Hulu, as well.

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Related Searches

Related Searches is another refinement tool in the Explore Pane. Based on your query, Related Searches provides a list of queries that are relevant to your topic.

For example, a query for “U2” will return a list of searches related to their videos, as well as other entertainment celebrities with whom they’ve been associated. The list of Related Searches appears below the Quick Tabs in the Explore Pane, providing a convenient tool to expand or adjust your search terms if you don’t like your results or simply want to exercise your curiosity.

Why: Many times users don’t know what words to use in their query, especially topics in which they are not experts. Related Searches presents a list of multidimensional refinements that can help users narrow their query without knowing a great deal about the topic on which they are searching.

Try it: Enter “diabetes” and look at Related Searches. Note terms that go beyond simple query modifications (such as hypoglycemia) and modifications that help narrow down your specific query (such as type 2 diabetes).

Session History

There may also be times when you’re looking for information you came across in a previous search. Rather than initiate a completely new query, Bing provides access to your Session History in the Explorer Pane. Session History remembers your queries within a single browser session for up to 48 hours, making it easy to track your past queries, the results you clicked on and even the time you accessed a link. Of course, you also have the option to turn Search History off, clear the contents of Search History, or just remove individual items from Search History.

Using our enhanced My Search Folders view, you can also save your searches in a local folder on your machine for future reference or to your Windows Live SkyDrive folders (when logged into Bing with your Windows Live ID), where you can access them from any computer with Internet access. As well, you can easily share your saved searches on Facebook, with your Windows Live contacts, or through e-mail simply by clicking on the icons on your My Search Folders page.

Why: Nearly 50 percent of searches are repeats, and 5 percent of queries make up almost 47 percent of the time spent searching. Session History provides a way to remember the work you’ve done online so you can spend more time finding new information.

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Try it:

1. Click on the “manage” link underneath the list of previous search queries at the bottom of the Explore Pane.

2. The history management page appears. From here you can browse through past searches, the clicked sites and the time, identify the query you’re looking for, and click on the link to pick up where you left off.

3. To save a search, click on “Save and Share” on the right of the screen. From there, you will see your recent searches and the results you clicked on. Simply check the boxes next to the results you want to save, and hit the “Save” button at the top. From there, you can create a new folder into which you would like the result saved or create a new one. You can save the results directly on your local drive, or you can sign in with your Windows Live ID and save the results to your Windows Live SkyDrive. As well, you can easily send search results to your friends via e-mail, MSN Messenger and your Facebook feed.

4. Alternatively, suppose you’ve been shopping for a birthday present for your significant other and need to erase your tracks. The history management page also allows you to delete some or all of your past search queries from Search History.

5. You can always shut off Session History from the search results page.

Enhanced Video Experience

Customers often tell us they want an easier, more comprehensive way to find the great video content available across the Web. The new video experience in Bing provides a number of features that make finding, previewing and watching videos a better experience. From our index of full-length television shows to our ability to search across sites such as Hulu and YouTube, and our innovative filtering tools that help you narrow down your search, video search in Bing is an exceptionally comprehensive place for finding video on the Web.

Why: Customers are increasingly using search to find the rich video content hosted on the Web. Video searches have grown more than 114 percent in the past year. Although consumers tell us they love the massive amount of video on the Web, they also tell us they want an easier way to find professionally produced video from networks, labels and news providers.

Try it:

1. Click on “Videos” from the Bing Home Page.

2. Click on “TV Shows” from the Explore Pane.

3. Note the easy navigation of genre from the Explore Pane and the center search results pane.

4. Now, search for “house” from the top search box.

5. In the Explore Pane, click on “Source” and choose from where you want to see your results. If you want to see full-length, high-quality video, choose Hulu.

6. Search for “david blaine street magic,” and click on “Source.” Choose YouTube to see the results narrowed down.

SIMPLIFIES TASKS AND DELIVERS A SET OF INSIGHTS TO HELP MAKE DECISIONS

Search engines have always been more about helping you find information, and less about putting that information to use. Microsoft set out to change that with “Bing.” Through the research, we identified the following as areas where people wanted more assistance in accomplishing tasks and making decisions: shopping; researching the symptoms of an illness; making travel arrangements; and looking for local restaurants, entertainment and other activities.

There’s no question the Internet has become an indispensible tool for getting things done. Microsoft found that 66 percent of people surveyed have grown accustomed to using the Internet as a vehicle for completing tasks and a source of information for making decisions.

Unfortunately, many search engines are more useful in helping you find information, and less useful in helping you use that information to make decisions. We set out to change that with Bing by creating a decision engine optimized for shopping, local search, travel and healthcare — the most frequent tasks or types of decisions on the Internet.

Bing SHOPPING

Everyone appreciates a good deal, and online is typically the best place to start looking. Unfortunately, finding the best deal online can sometimes be just as tedious as bargain hunting brick-and-mortar style. Bing takes the online shopping experience a step further through tools that help you scour the Internet for customer and expert reviews, search for a product based on a variety of features and characteristics, find the best deal available online, and even get cash back with your purchase. Combined, these tools help make your product purchase decision a snap.

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Home Page

There are two ways to launch your product search from the Bing Home Page: Clicking on the shopping link will take you directly to the Bing Shopping Home Page, from which you can search for a product. Alternatively, you can start a search query in the search window of the Bing Home Page.

Try it:

1. Enter a search for “digital camera” from the Bing Home Page.

2. Click on the shopping Quick Tab in the Explore Pane, which subsequently takes you to a Bing Shopping page where all the digital cameras are sorted by Best Match.

3. Alternatively, click on the shopping link from the Bing Home Page.

4. Enter “digital camera” in the search window on the Bing Shopping Home Page.

Product Search

Search results on the Bing product listings page are automatically sorted by best match, but can also be sorted by price, user rating and expert rating. Bing Shopping also provides search refinement tools in the Explore Pane to help in your search. The Explore Pane for product search is divided into four categories: product category, brand, price and whether a product qualifies for Live Search cashback. Each of these is dissected further, allowing you to filter products based on a specific price range, preferred brand and particular characteristic or feature.

Try it:

1. Using the same search for “digital camera,” select “$75-100” as the price range.

2. Select “Olympus” as the brand.

On the right side, see the “Popular Features“ heading that shows you for that product category what most popular considerations people are using when purchasing these products. Click on “Photo Quality,” and you will be taken to a listing of Olympus cameras that have a high user rating for photo quality.

Opinion Ranking

Clicking on a particular product surfaces the product details page, where one of the first things you’ll notice is the link to user reviews and expert reviews (along with product details and compare prices). To provide these rankings, Bing scours the Web for consumer product reviews and also relies on the expertise of partners such as CNET. A product’s overall ranking is visible on the product listings page, but clicking on “User Reviews” (on the product details page) provides a much more nuanced assessment of a product based on each of its features using comments from users across the Web. The sentiment extraction capability in Bing can give you a very detailed look at how one particular feature stacks up against the competition. Bing does all this so you don’t have to go to each of the opinion sites and read lengthy opinions about a product’s positive or negative features.

Try it:

1. Using the same filtered “digital camera” search results, select the camera of your choice.

2. From the product details page, click on “User Reviews.”

3. Select “Photo Quality” to see comments about the clarity of pictures that Bing pulled from the users’ overall review of the product.

Live Search Cashback

Currently, Bing Shopping lists products for more than 540 online retailers that participate in Live Search cashback, a program that reimburses you with a percentage of the product’s price. The compare prices page lists the price at those retailers where the product you’re shopping for is available and highlights participating retailers.

The compare prices page shows the respective percentage of Live Search cashback savings for each retailer. Clicking on the percentage shows the amount of savings and what the net sales price is after the discount. When you click on “Go to Store,” an interstitial page will then ask for your e-mail address and verify that Live Search cashback is in force before you complete the transaction.

Among the list of participating retailers are the following:

• B & H Foto & Electronics Corp.

•

• Barnes &

•

•

• Inc.

• Gap Online

• HP Home & Home Office Store

• J&R Electronics Inc.

• Lenovo

• MacMall

• OfficeMax Inc.

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• Sears, Roebuck and Co.

• Stubhub Inc.

•

• Inc.

Bing LOCAL

Seventy two percent of searches for local businesses, restaurants and entertainment venues start in a search engine, but today’s engines don’t do enough help you make an informed decision about the quality of the meal, the nature of the dining experience or the availability of tickets. Bing Local provides you with tools to help you make those informed decisions by bringing the relevant information to you: user reviews, hours of operation, and one-click directions and traffic reports to hasten you to your destination of choice.

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Home Page

You can easily access local search from the Bing Home Page in one of two ways: Clicking on the “Maps” link will bring you to the Bing Maps Home Page, at which point you can either enter a search query or select from one of the business categories and allow Bing to surface businesses based on your physical location. You can also conduct a search directly from the Bing Home Page in your area and click on the top local listings that appear first on the search engine results page.

Try it

1. From the Bing Home Page, submit a query for “New York sushi.”

2. Click on “Top local listings for sushi near New York, N.Y.”

3. Alternatively, from the Bing Home Page, click on the “Local” link.

4. Enter “New York sushi” in the search window on the Bing Local Home Page.

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Rich Listing Results

Search results within Bing Local provide a quick snapshot of information relevant to your decision. For example, a restaurant listing calls out the phone number, type of cuisine, location, hours of operation, price range and availability of parking. In addition, search results provide a quick link to customer reviews, one-click directions, the menu and a bird’s-eye view of the location. Bing enables you to easily enter your starting location right from the results page so you can quickly get to where you need to go.

Details pages for results also include a list of nearby businesses that are relevant to your search. For example, the list related to a restaurant listing might highlight the location of nearby theaters, coffee shops and parking.

Search Refinement

Bing Local sorts search results based on Best Match, but it also gives you the option of sorting based on rating or distance. And much like Bing Shopping, the Explore Pane in Bing Local offers a variety of refinement tools to help you make informed decisions. In the case of restaurants, the top of the Explore Pane features related category that allow you to focus on a specific neighborhood or type of restaurant within your initial query. In addition, you can filter by rating, by price, by atmosphere, by ability to make reservations, by payment method and by availability of parking.

Try it:

1. Within the current search listings for sushi restaurants in New York, click on “Romantic” under “Atmosphere.”

2. Click on “Four-Star” under “Ratings”

3. From the filtered search listings, click on “Yama”

Scorecard

The recommendations of past customers play a huge role in the businesses we frequent. With that in mind, the Scorecard feature on Bing Local details page uses a color-coded bar graph to prominently display the rankings of a business against key criteria. In the case of restaurants, the criteria might include atmosphere, food quality, entertainment and drinks. The rankings are generated by consumer reviews as well as content from partners such as Citysearch, Yelp and Judy’sBook. The Scorecard also sums up the number of reviewers for each criteria and the percentage that are positive.

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Sentiment Extraction

Bing Local provides a link to customer reviews, but the Sentiment Extraction feature builds on Scorecard, allowing you to zero in on comments relevant to a particular criterion.

Try it: From the Yama details page, click on “Show Reviews” next to the criterion of your choice in the Scorecard. Then scroll down to get a snapshot of customers’ past experiences at this West Village neighborhood sushi bar in New York.

One-Click Directions

Often times, especially when you’re in your hometown, you have a basic understanding of how to navigate the area, so by default Bing provides directions from the nearest freeway or main thoroughfare to your final destination. This saves you the often multistep set of directions of going from your home or work to the highway — something you likely already know how to do. Bing Local will surface a set of directions for each relevant point of the compass when you click on “1-Click Directions” (either from the search listings page or search details page). If door-to-door directions are needed, you can access them by clicking on “A Specific Location” from the “1-Click Directions” page. You can also access a variety of other navigational tools such as current traffic by clicking on “Go to Live Search Maps.”

Try it:

1. Click on “1-Click Directions” to see the various navigation options to Yama.

2. Click on “A Specific Location” to submit a specific address, then click on “Cancel.”

3. Click on “Go to Live Search Maps” underneath the map.

4. Cycle through the different views by selecting the Aerial, Bird’s eye and Traffic tabs at the top of the map.

Bing TRAVEL

The primary focus of Bing Travel is helping you find the best deals on flights and hotel accommodations so you can make informed decisions about your travel arrangements. Bing Travel accomplishes this in a variety of ways: using Live Search Farecast and historical data to predict the rise and fall of ticket prices in the near-term, comparing prices against more than 100 travel, hotel and airline Web sites, and alerting you to special deals broken out by criteria such as weekend trips, record low prices or flights to family vacation destinations.

Why: Forty-five percent of online travel arrangements begin within a search engine. Integrating a travel decision engine within Bing provides an easy way to start and finish your travel arrangements.

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Home Page

You can start a search for travel arrangements directly from the Bing Home Page, much the same way you initiated searches for Bing Shopping and Bing Local. Clicking on “Travel” will bring you directly to the Bing Travel Home Page. Across the top of the page are links to “Flights,” “Hotels,” “Airfare Deals” and “Destinations.”

Whether you need a flight for a particular day or destination, or your schedule is more flexible, you can access information directly from the Bing Travel Home Page. And because Bing Travel is based on Live Search Farecast technology, it takes much of the guesswork out of knowing when to travel, the affordable places to travel to and when to purchase your ticket.

Once an airport of origin and airport of destination have been entered in the main Search Flights box, you can access information about the latest deals from either one (“Airfare Deals…” on the right side). You can also find out the optimum dates to travel during the next 30 days, based on the historical behavior of ticket prices (“Graph Fares over 30 Days”).

If you’re tied to a specific date or destination, you can enter it in the appropriate window in the Search Flights box on the Home Page, choose the travel sites you want to compare prices with, and click on “Search.”

Try it:

1. From the Bing Travel Home Page, enter “Seattle” as your airport of origin and “San Francisco” as your destination.

2. Click on “Airfare Deals From Seattle” and note the link in the upper-right corner for “Deals to Destination Cities.”

3. Click on the “When to Travel” link to see the predicted rise and fall of ticket prices over the next month’s time. (You can access the same graph from the Home Page by using the “Graph Fares over 30 Days” link.)

4. Going back to the Bing Travel Home Page, click on “Search” to see a list of the various flights and ticket prices available for your date of choice.

5. Note on the left side of the screen that the “7-Day Low Fare Prediction” tells you, with a percentage of confidence, whether now is the right time to purchase that ticket.

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Instant Answer

You can also submit a query from the Bing Home Page, such as “Flights from Seattle to San Francisco,” which will surface an Instant Answer, including a quick snapshot of the lowest priced ticket, whether ticket prices appear to be rising or falling, a 30-day outlook on ticket prices and links to additional deals from Seattle or to San Francisco.

Detailed Flight Results

When you submit a search for tickets on a specific date, Bing Travel surfaces a detailed listing of available flights. Each result includes the ticket price, airline, estimated departure and arrival times, airports of origin and destination, number of layovers and estimated flying time. Bing also offers little enhancements to make your decision easier, such as a clear indication whether it’s a red-eye flight or has an especially short connection.

Microsoft’s exclusive Live Search Farecast technology helps take the guesswork out of knowing when to buy an airline ticket. As many know, the market for airline tickets is incredibly dynamic with prices for the same flight changing day by day. Farecast uses a patented algorithm to help predict whether the ticket you want is likely to increase or decrease in price over the next seven days, which helps make the decision to buy much easier.

The Time Grid makes picking that perfect flight easy by showing you the fares based on what time of day you leave.

Flight: Search Refinement

The Explore Pane in Bing Travel allows you to fine tune your search results based on the number of stops, departure and arrival time, airlines of choice, price range, airports, flight quality (red-eye, long layover or short connection), and flight duration. You can also click on “Compare Airlines” to find out if there’s a booking fee, a low-fare guarantee or any online mileage promotions.

Try it: On the search results page, modify your criteria in the Explore Pane under “Stops” (number of stops on your flight), “Times” (window of time in which you want to take off or land), “Connection Airports”, and “Flight Quality” to see how these changes impact the number of search results and price range.

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Hotel Rate Key

Bing Travel allows you to filter hotel search results using a variety of criteria such as amenities, price range and neighborhood, but what sets Bing Travel apart from most other sites is the hotel Rate Key — a color-coded rating system that indicates whether the current rate for a specific hotel appears to be a deal — any rate lower than past rates for that particular hotel. The Rate Key makes this assessment by comparing the current rate found for the hotel to its past rates on the same travel dates or same days of the week. When combined with Map View, the hotel Rate Key allows you to compare the hotels with the best rates against those with the best location and find the one providing the best overall value.

Try it:

1. From the Bing Travel Home Page (click on “Hotels” to load the appropriate search window), enter a search for hotels in San Francisco.

2. Using the filter tools in the Explore Pane, select hotels that have “Internet” and “Business Center.”

3. Click on Map View to see the locations of each hotel and the color-coded rating that denotes the value of its current rate.

Connection to Microsoft Live Search Maps, Photosynth

On top of the value in Bing Travel, you can also use Microsoft Live Search Maps to search through Wikipedia articles and learn more about your travel destination (such as Rome or Istanbul). And with Microsoft Photosynth you can take a virtual tour using panoramic photo-collages created by people who have been there before you.

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Bing HEALTH

Self-diagnosis is no substitute for the advice and expertise of a trained physician, but when you, a friend or a family member start exhibiting unrecognizable symptoms, the availability of information online can help you decide whether a trip to the emergency room is in order.

Bing Health provides you with access to medical information from nine trusted medical resources, including the Mayo Clinic, the American Cancer Society and MedlinePlus. You’ll have easy access to information on symptoms, diagnosis and medical procedures, as well as issues related to drugs and substances, personal health and alternative medicine.

Why: Forty-five percent of people use the Internet to research what ails them and how to treat it.

Try it:

1. From the Bing Home Page, simply submit your query from the Home Page search window. Enter a query for “Hepatitis C.”

2. In the subsequent search results, click on “Symptoms” from Quick Tabs (in Explore Pane).

3. Note the Instant Answer (When to consult a doctor) that appears as a Best Match. Clicking on that result takes you to an article from the Mayo Clinic where you can find trusted and authoritative information.

Bing for Mobile

Bing is designed for the PC, and it offers a better way to search the entire Web, but we also have Bing for Mobile, which is designed specifically for quick, task-oriented searches of local information on mobile devices. Bing for Mobile is available in two versions — one for online access via the browser and the other as a downloadable application. Both versions excel with local searches and mapping, and search results are formatted for smaller screens.

Bing for Mobile is the updated version of Live Search Mobile. We aren’t announcing any new features at this time, but new versions of the application will be released soon. Find more information on Bing for Mobile at .

Bing Toolbars

Toolbars offer you an easy and convenient way to access “Bing.” Bing will power both the Windows Live Toolbar () and the MSN Toolbar (), bringing you the value and power of our new engine to your fingertips, regardless of where you are on the Web. Shortly after the Bing launch, Microsoft will also release a new version of the MSN Toolbar (version 4.0). Using Microsoft Silverlight, MSN Toolbar 4.0 will give you easy ways to customize your toolbar options, and alert you to Bing offers, such as Live Search cashback, when they are available to you.

CONCLUSION

The Internet has changed and so have you. We set out to provide a dynamic Internet experience that responds to that change and adapts to how you use the Internet.

With Bing you get more than a search engine. You get a powerful decision engine that helps you make more informed decisions by accomplishing the following:

• Reducing the number of wasted clicks (which currently account for 24 percent of clicks)

• Adding structure to the current chaos of search results

• Finding Instant Answers quickly and with only a single click

• Providing organized access to user and expert opinions about products and local businesses

APPENDIX

Bing Top Features

• Auto-Suggest. Offers intelligent alternatives for search queries

• Instant Answers. Serves up information within search results, eliminating the need to click on anything

• Best Match. Provides useful links and information for definitive sites

• Related Searches. Points to deeper information available with one click

• Deep Links. Enables easy, direct access to relevant content within a site

• Quick View. Summarizes a Web site at a glance, before clicking through to the site

• Smart Video Preview. Previews a 30-second clip of videos simply by scrolling onto them

• Infinite Scroll. Provides easily browsed image results without clicking to a new page

• Quick Tabs. Tailors search results with one click

Bing Instant Answers

|Business and Finance |

|Company Overviews |Displays company overviews and Fortune |Appears in secondary location after stock |

| |1000 rankings for the top 1,000 |answer: MSFT, Microsoft stock quote |

| |companies from CNN Money |Appears in secondary location without stock |

| | |answer: GM |

| | |Appears in primary location: GM overview, 3M |

| | |company profile |

|Earnings |Provides earnings information for a |Microsoft earnings, IBM earnings |

| |company | |

|Economic |Offers a summary of current economic |economic crisis, financial crisis, U.S. |

| |statistics |recession, unemployment rate, foreclosure |

| | |rate |

|Finance |Displays company stock quotes, funds |U.S.:MSFT, DRC, Sandisk stock, NOOF, Quote |

| |and news; ability to search multiple |MSFT GOOG YHOO, FGRIX |

| |quotes at once | |

|Interest Rates |Provides a range (low average, median |interest rates, mortgage rates, mortgage |

| |and high average) interest rates for a |rates Ohio, 30 year mortgage rates, auto loan|

| |variety of loan and credit forms |rates, CD rates |

| | |rates by bank: Citi, Bank of America |

|Job Salary |Provides users with salary information |Seattle software engineer salary, programmer |

| |based on job title and location |pay in Seattle, software engineer pay |

|Sports |

|Auto Racing |Provides NASCAR, IRL (Indy Racing |Series: NASCAR racing, Sprint Cup Series, |

| |League) and F1 (Formula One) coverage |Sprint Cup |

| |for queries about the sport, a race or |Event: Daytona 500 race, Daytona 500, Daytona|

| |a driver |500 schedule |

| | |Driver: Matt Kenseth, Kevin Harvick, A. J. |

| | |Allmendinger |

|Cricket |Captures the latest match scores and |live cricket scores, cricket score England, |

| |schedules for cricket and provides an |cricket fixtures, cricket schedule Australia |

| |Instant Answer | |

|Golf |Provides answers about professional |Series: PGA, PGA tour, PGA golf |

| |golf for queries referring to the sport|Event: Honda Classic, the British Open, U.S. |

| |in general, a series of matches, a |Open |

| |major tournament or a player |Player: Tiger Woods, Chris Couch, Mark Wilson|

|NHL Hockey |Schedules, game detail and player |League: NHL hockey, NHL, pro hockey |

| |performance information for NHL hockey |Team: Vancouver Canucks, Pittsburgh Penguins |

| | |Player: Sidney Crosby, Matt Hunwick, Blake |

| | |Wheeler |

|Soccer |Provides answers for queries about MLS |David Beckham, Premier League, Seattle |

| |and European leagues |Sounders |

|Sports (General) |Offers scores for games in progress as |pro baseball, Seattle Mariners, Ichiro |

| |well as team and player stats |Suzuki, NBA, Boston Celtics |

|Tennis |Provides answers about pro tennis in |Series: men's tennis, pro tennis, grand slam |

| |general, a specific match or a player |Event: Australian Open, Medibank |

| | |International, Heineken Open |

| | |Player: Mario Anzic, Enzo Artoni, Ana |

| | |Ivanovic |

|UFC and MMA fighters |Displays mixed martial arts fighters |Chuck Liddell, Dan Saveren, Tito Ortiz |

| |from the UFC and other organizations | |

|WWE Wrestling |Finds basic info about WWE wrestlers |Triple H, Shawn Michaels |

| |and WWE events | |

|Travel and Navigation |

|Snow Reports |During the season, snow conditions at |snow report Seattle |

| |mountain resorts worldwide (data feed | |

| |from ) | |

|Hotels |Search for a hotel, find the top three |cheap hotels, Hilton hotels, hotels in |

| |deals, cheapest rate, and determine |Europe, Europe hotels, Expedia hotels, travel|

| |whether you should buy or hold |London |

|Events |Displays information and links for |events in Chicago, concerts, football |

| |related top events, around a user's |tickets, broadway shows |

| |location (implicit location) or around | |

| |the location specified in user query | |

|Flight Status |Provides up-to-date flight information |UA 820, United 820, United Airlines 820, |

| | |flight status United, flight status AA 7147 |

|Flights |Submit a flight search, find the top |cheap flights, flights from Seattle, flights |

| |three deals, cheapest rate, and |to Seattle, flights from Seattle to San |

| |determine whether you should buy or |Francisco, Alaska Airlines flights |

| |hold | |

|Maps (Local) |Map of a specific location or point of |71 Hillside Ave., Melrose, MA; map of Mumbai;|

| |interest |where is Norman, Oklahoma? |

|Time Zone |Displays current time for a specific |time in Copenhagen |

| |location | |

|Traffic (Local) |Shows traffic congestion and accidents |commute, New York traffic, traffic |

|U.S. Travel Attractions |Provides the top attractions and |Seattle attractions, Seattle destination |

| |related references for a given |guide |

| |destination query | |

|Weather |Provides forecast for a specific |Climate, weather today, Ottawa weather |

| |location | |

|Shopping |

|Autos |Shows user research, user review data |BMW 325i, used 2003 BMW, quality used cars |

| |for autos by make and model, and new | |

| |and used purchase availability | |

|Commerce |Provides important refinement links |mp3 players, digital cameras |

| |such as brand, category, user opinions |Garmin GPS, Canon digital cameras, Gap jeans |

| |and price to help people refine their |Canon PowerShot, Microsoft Office |

| |searches |Garmin Nuvi 350, Nikon D40 |

| |Displays top product and cash-back | |

| |offer for the query | |

| |Displays detailed info about a | |

| |particular product such as spec | |

| |attributes, price range, user review | |

| |rating, etc. | |

|Coupons |Lists coupon codes or links with |Dell, Hertz coupons |

| |embedded coupons | |

|Gas Prices |Location-detection-based answer that |gas prices, cheapest gas, cheapest gas for |

| |uses MSN content to show the cheapest |Seattle, cheapest gas for 98121 |

| |gas prices by ZIP code or city | |

|Products |Shows product information and review |Canon PowerShot SD600, Canon PowerShot SD400,|

| |summary for a product; search for a |Zune, Nikon D80 |

| |product that has not yet been released | |

|Entertainment and Recreation |

|Casual Games |Discover casual online games provided |Amazonian, Atlantis Quest, Bankshot Billiards|

| |by MSN |Cutthroat, Bejeweled |

|Green |Information about green topics |carbon footprint, green driving tips, natural|

| | |cleaning products |

|Health |Provides information relevant to a |diabetes, Lipitor, sprained ankle, diabetes |

| |broad range of health topics and |medications, eczema medications |

| |detailed information about them | |

|Horoscope |Displays weekly, daily and monthly |Horoscope, Pisces horoscope, daily Pisces |

| |horoscope information |horoscope, weekly Pisces horoscope, monthly |

| | |pisces horoscope |

|Images |Shows top image results |cat images, panda images, pictures of |

| | |elephant |

|Lottery |Displays winning numbers for lottery |lottery, Powerball results |

| |games | |

|Movie Showtimes |Movie showtimes, trailers and other |Coraline showtimes, AMC Movie Showtimes, |

| |information for in-theater movies |showtimes 90028 |

|Multimedia Video |Shows top video results |cat videos, South Park videos |

|Reality TV Show Results |Offers information about who got kicked|American Idol, Project Runway |

| |off and who's remaining on your | |

| |favorite reality TV show | |

|Recipes and Drinks |Provides users with cuisine-based |fire roasted tomato soup, beef wheat berry |

| |recipes (e.g., Indian and Italian) and |chili, hot collard stew, rusty nail (drink) |

| |ingredient-based recipes (e.g., potato | |

| |and mushroom) or a combination of both | |

|Seasonal Events |Displays information about holidays and|Halloween, NBA All-Star game, Academy Awards,|

| |events you want to know more about |Cannes Film Festival |

|TV Guides and Shows |Find out what's on TV for specific |What's on TV, TV guide for Seattle, Seinfeld |

| |locations |Seattle, When is Deal or No Deal is playing, |

| | |Sportscenter |

|Who's Who |Find basic info about people eminent in|Paula Marchewka Koczur, John Keeler, John |

| |a field (noncelebrities) |Johnson |

|xRank |Find out where your favorite celebrity |Jessica Alba, Barack Obama |

| |ranks in online popularity, and learn | |

| |more about them | |

|News |

|News |Shows top news stories and/or videos, |Obama inauguration, Super Bowl teams, |

| |provides new from a specific search |recession, South Asia, election |

| |(e.g., "cnn") | |

|RSS and Headlines |Shows content from RSS results |New York Times, Seattle Times |

|Software and Technical Search |

|File Extensions |Enables users to search for file |.docx file format, .pdf extension |

| |extension names and get a description | |

| |of what the file format is | |

|Man Page |Provides answers for *nix man pages |man cat, man grep, man tar |

|Microsoft Knowledge Base |Shows information for specific |MS08-051, MS08-050 |

| |Microsoft Knowledge Base articles or | |

| |technical support issues | |

|Microsoft Learning Products |Provides answers to customers searching|Course 8505, 9780735619937, Exam 74-132 |

| |for Microsoft Learning products, such | |

| |as books, courses, exams, | |

| |certifications, learning plans and | |

| |e-learning | |

|Microsoft Security Patch |Find out what the latest Microsoft |MSFT security patches, Microsoft security |

| |Security patches are |patch, latest security patches |

|Windows Live Experiences |Find out information about Windows Live|Live Photos, Hotmail on Mac, Messenger Video |

| |experiences |Call |

|Software Titles for Download (non-Microsoft) |Shows title, description, ratings and |Solitaire |

| |download link for software titles | |

|Xbox Games and Products |Provides results for Xbox game titles |Halo 3 |

| |and products, showing info about each | |

| |and linking the user to the Xbox Web | |

| |site | |

| |

| |

|Reference |

|Academics |Provides an answer for queries related |, Dr. , |

| |to academic researchers |Prof. , paper by |

|Facts |Answers fact-based questions |population of Ireland, Who won Super Bowl |

| | |XXX?, Seattle ZIP code, fear of cats, Ernest |

| | |Hemingway birthday, Christmas 2008 |

|Freebase |Obtains answers to natural language |What did picasso paint?, Who painted dejeuner|

| |questions about the visual arts, |sur l'herbee?, Rodin sculptures, |

| |business, etc. |impressionist paintings, impressionist |

| | |painters, Who is Hulk Hogan?, Who is George |

| | |Bush?, Bill Gates, Who did Microsoft |

| | |acquire?, Who founded Microsoft?, Where is |

| | |Microsoft headquartered? |

|Sacred Text |Look up passages from the Bible, Qur'an|John 1:17, 1; Nephi 3:1; Al-Anfal; John 1 |

| |and Book of Mormon | |

|Wikipedia Answer |Takes users to a Wikipedia entry |Answer based on gallery queries |

|Useful Tools |

|Answer Showcase |Provides query fields for specific |calculator, currency conversion, dictionary, |

| |functions or features that consumers |encyclopedia, equations, stock, sports, |

| |are searching for |package tracking, time zone, unit conversion,|

| | |VIN, instant answers |

|Area Codes |Looks up the location of an area code |area code 724 |

| |or ZIP code | |

|Calculator |Offers calculator functions and |24 * 32 / 67, (sin 100) * 50, 2% of 25, 20 |

| |constants |modulo 9, 4th root of 37, 5%4, arc tan 25, |

| | |gravitational constant, answer to life the |

| | |universe and everything |

|Conversions |Converts one unit of measure to another|How many miles in a kilometer?, 10 pounds in |

| | |grams, 100 deg Celsius in Kelvin, 100 pounds |

| | |in kg, 15 grams in ounces, What is 63 degrees|

| | |F in C?, 63 degrees F in C |

|Currency |Converts from one currency to another |convert 100 dollars to yen |

|Dictionary |Defines a word |define pert, meaning of pert, pert |

| | |definition, definition of pert, what is pert |

|Equations |Solves simple algebraic equations |2x + 5 = 10, solve q^2 -4 = 9, 2y^2 + 4y -10 |

| | |= 9 |

|Package Tracking |Tracks DHL, UPS and other packages by |DHL 2710172150, 1z9999999999999999 |

| |tracking number | |

|Phone Book (Local) |Location and phone number for a |Rhinebeck, NY restaurants, Old Navy, Phoenix |

| |specific item or category |tattoo shops |

|Popular URLs |Provides URL to Web site that user is |, cstd.ca, |

| |searching for | |

|Related Topics |Provides links for related topics to |Canon, Paris Hilton, Barack Obama |

| |the original query. For example, if the| |

| |user queries for Canon, some of the | |

| |related topics would be Nikon, Olympus,| |

| |Casio, etc. | |

|Thesaurus |Displays synonyms and antonyms |synonym repetitive, other words for |

| | |repetitive, synonyms for repetitive, |

| | |repetitive synonyms, synonyms repetitive |

|Translation |Translates foreign language queries to |juegos, bolsa de trabajo, translate juegos, |

| |English and presents the translation as|translate games to Spanish, games in Spanish |

| |a query suggestion; also available in | |

| |natural language | |

|Unit Conversions |Converts between different units of |How many feet in a meter?, 2 liters to |

| |measurement |gallons, number of lbs in 6.54kg, convert |

| | |from 8C to F |

|VIN |Vehicle lookup by VIN |3fafp11392r187591, 2hnyd18834h504321, |

| | |wbxpa73474wb29428 |

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