Microsoft’s Ad-Free Search Engine
I can recall a few times in middle and high school being distracted by advertisements when I would be doing research on the school’s computers. Even now I find myself becoming preoccupied searching for content from an ad when I should be doing research or homework online. To prevent this distraction, Microsoft is offering their Bing search engine without advertisements to K-12 school systems.
Microsoft introduced their Bing search engine, or Decision Engine as it is called, in June 2009. Bing’s goal is not just to provide people with information, but to help those people “accomplish tasks and make smart decisions” (Microsoft Corporation). In August, Microsoft initiated a new, free program that offers an alternative search engine created for schools K-12.
Microsoft’s Bing for Schools program offers an ad-free search engine that is designed specifically for K-12 students, resulting in a “commerce-free zone” (Hartzer, 1). In addition to ad-free search results, the program also offers better privacy protection and strengthened filtering software. So far, only a few school systems have signed up for the program.
The advertisers also seem to be on-board with the new program. “Advertisers that Microsoft have talked to have generally been supportive: this is net good for them, as they spend less on errant clicks from young students who are not their intended customer, and can concentrate their spend on the people who actually matter to them” (Hartzer, 1).
Have you found yourself being distracted by ads when you should be doing something else? What do you think of the Bing for Schools program? Do you think students will ultimately benefit from the program, or will they find another distraction online? Is this program really a net good for advertisers? Could you see other entities paying for this service to be free of advertisements when searching online?
Bing for Schools’ website: <http://www.bing.com/schools>
Sources:
Hartzer, Bill. “Bing for Schools: No Ads for Students.” BillHartzer. August 21, 2013. Web. Accessed: 9/20/13. <http://www.billhartzer.com/pages/bing-for-schools-no-ads-for-students/>
Shih, Gerry. “Microsoft Offers Ad-Free Bing for the Classroom to Battle Google.”Reuters. August 21, 2013. Web. Accessed 9/22/13. <http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/08/21/net-us-microsoft-bing-education-idUSBRE97K0E620130821>
Microsoft Corporation. (2009). Microsoft’s New Search at Bing.com Helps People Make Better Decisions [Press release]. Retrieved from http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/news/press/2009/may09/05-28newsearchpr.aspx.
That's neat, I never heard of the Bing with no ads! I think it is a good idea for school settings because of the additional privacy and filtering. Personally I find ads to be annoying when I'm online. I even noticed when I'm on certain sites ads might pop up from previous sites I already browsed on (mainly when I'm online shop). Wonder if the Google search engine will come up with something similar......
ReplyDeleteThat's a good question. Google is the top search provider, so it would be interesting to see if they follow in Bing's footsteps. Do you think this could help Bing gain ground on Google?
DeleteI think this will definitely help Bing gain ground on Google. We grew up with Google therefore anytime someone from our generation searches something, more than likely they go straight to that search engine. The next generation will grow up seeing Bing every day. Are they going to switch to Google the day they get out of 12th grade? No, they'll be used to Bing and will stay with it for the long haul. Microsoft has a brilliant strategy and your article on it was great!
DeleteI think Bing not having any ads is fantastic. For young school kids, you never really know what they are accessing through the internet, and having a search engine that protects them and filters out "adult content" is, in a way, a sort of "chaperone". I like how they specifically tailor Bing for K-12 students. It seems to be more assuring knowing that they had that age in mind as they were creating it. Not having ads also helps keep the students more focused and out of potential–even accidental–trouble. Nowadays, people think they are really good at multi-tasking. Unfortunately, it is more like being distracted for short periods of time every few minutes when there are ads constantly being presented. Having a search engine without ads seems like an effective way to keep youth protected and focused.
ReplyDeleteI don’t use Bing often but with Google the top 3 search results are advertisements. If you don’t know this, you could click on it and waste a lot of time on information that may not be exactly what you are looking for. I think the Bing for Schools Program is a good marketing strategy, especially since most school systems use Google as their default search engine.
ReplyDeleteI don't use bing either mainly because I'm just use to google. I don't get distracted by ads per say unless it comes up on a page that I intentionally click on, and has collected data from previous shopping sites. I do think bing is a good idea but kids will always find a way to get distracted. I do think it will help decrease the possibility of them getting distracted especially when you first log on and get started on an assignment.
ReplyDeleteFor students like me, I will always find a way to distract myself from my homework/studying. Therefore a website advertisement free won't exactly help me. Nowadays, google chrome is offering extensions allowing you to block yourself from a list of websites to your choosing for 25 mins. After 25 mins, you can access those sites for a total of 5 mins.
ReplyDeleteAdam has made a good point about the distractions being less on ads that are given. I am more likely to open up a new tab and type in Facebook or Pinterest. If I don't want to study, I will typically get distracted easily no matter what search engine I am using. Although, it is a good idea for them to try to expand by giving these visions that it will be a breakthrough on studying and researching. If anything, many parents will love the idea - whether it really helps or not. For that reason, most school kids will be encouraged to use this search engine over the rest.
ReplyDeleteThat is the hard thing about creating things without advertisements, someone has go to pay for it. I definitely think it is a great idea to offer such a service to K-12 school programs to help from distracting students during school hours. I was curious though did it say anything about how much this service would cost the school? Being that there are only a few school systems signed up for it and a lot of school systems struggling with money situations, it would be a hard sell at the moment.
ReplyDeleteMicrosoft is offering Bing for Schools for free to school systems, which I think makes it even more enticing. Do you think a company would be willing to pay for a service like this if they thought it would help reduce distractions for their employees?
ReplyDeleteThanks Jay. I had the same question as Taylor regarding costs to school systems. I don't really think companies would be willing to pay for something like this since most employees probably shouldn't be on the internet anyway. But I do think this is a great marketing strategy for Bing. They get to have their name out there for doing something great for schools and children, and now those kids have gotten accustomed to always using Bing for their searches. Now Bing has trained millions of children to use their tool throughout the majority of their childhood, which means they'll most likely continue to use Bing as adults!
ReplyDelete