Bing hooks up with Encyclopedia Britannica

Microsoft has announced a partnership between its search engine and the Encyclopedia Britannica.

This means that from now on, when you search on Bing, answers from Britannica Online will be included on the results page.

These Britannica supplied answers will provide a quick summary and overview of the subject, a small thumbnail image, along with some useful highlighted facts. So, for example, if you’re searching for a famous person, it might highlight his or her date of birth, or cause of death.

Bing also provides links to other sources which it trusts for further information, such as for example Wikipedia, or Qwiki. Bear in mind that Wikipedia, of course, isn’t always the most reliable of sources given the way it’s put together.

Indeed, Bing bringing Britannica on board could be seen as a clever step in terms of the accuracy of search data pulled up, as Google does tend to highlight Wikipedia above all else when it comes to internet research.

Franco Salvetti, Principal Development Lead, Bing, commented: “We’re very excited to collaborate with Encyclopedia Britannica as it continues to strengthen its online presence, and hope you find these new answers valuable and helpful in your search for information. Give it a try and let us know what you think.”

Bing, of course, still lags way behind Google in terms of search market share. And Google isn’t standing still, developing its search engine with a knowledge base, to return more natural and intelligent answers to search queries, as opposed to just spewing out pages of links.