“Bing is embarking on the most ambitious geographic and product expansion in its history.” Those are the words that accompanied a job posting for Microsoft’s much maligned search division. Initially spotted by Neowin, the post has since been removed, but it signals a very clear strategy from the Redmond-based tech behemoth.
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According to the posting, the successful candidate would “drive and execute strategic partnerships and tactical deals in key search distribution and content areas (which may include local, shopping, entertainment, music, books, video, social, news and apps), for the web, mobile/tablets, Xbox and other devices.”
To put it simply, Microsoft is trying to make sure that Bing stops sucking in every country outside the US. To put it slightly less simply, Microsoft wants to make sure that Bing can be a full services offering capable of competing with Google across the globe.
Indeed, the fact that the company is looking to make the experience as localised is pretty promising, especially around key points of differentiation like Xbox. It’s not a small expansion either, reportedly involving moves into some 75 new markets.
It’s worth noting however that while the move is primarily aimed at upping its game against Google, the Mountain-view based offering won’t actually be its main competition in a number of markets.
In fact, Bing in its purest form is only the world’s fifth most popular search engine, with China’s Baidu, Russia’s Yandex and Yahoo search all standing between it and El Goog.
That’s kind of intimidating but, if anything, should provide even more incentive to be aggressive in its expansion.
