A search engine has ramped up its push to take market share away from Google with the announcement of its latest technology.

With what has been an excellent debut too, Bing Predictions seems  to be in very good voice.

The software is still very much in its embryonic stages, but the signs are clear about just how useful such a tool could be to businesses looking to tailor their online marketing strategies.

The premise of the device is simple; it uses collated search query information to predict outcomes. Also factoring in the social buzz, it is a natural progression for search engines.

With the Bing Blog intimating that the company has been experimenting with forecasting outcomes at least as far back as the 2012 US Presidential Election, it said:

“One of the most interesting aspects of search engines is their ability to process trillions of signals to reflect what is happening in the real world.”

It has taken time to come to the public arena however and, to ensure instant coverage, Bing has used one of the most popular US TV shows to put its technology to the test. It chose to predict which contestants would be voted out of The Voice.

What’s more, it got it right.

By analysing a number of show-specific search terms, in the run up to the programme it was predicting the elimination of contestants Delvin and Dani, with fellow contestant TJ cited as being in danger of elimination.

Following the performances, the ‘predictions carousel’ changed to see TJ and Dani as being in danger of being voted off. This result proved accurate.

This is clearly good news for Bing’s talent pool and algorithms. It is also excellent news for online marketing strategists.

In the future, the positivity could be even more far reaching, with online trend monitoring helping to shape decision making at a corporate level, such as in when to launch a product or service.

Steven Morris