Microsoft today unveiled a slew of impending upgrades to the Windows 8 operating system, and some of those changes affect how travelers use Bing Search and the Bing Travel app (US only).
Glossing on the travel-related changes, Derrick Connell, who is a corporate vice president at Bing, says:
Imagine you’re planning a trip to Paris. Simply type the name of the city and you’ll immediately see beautiful, full-bleed images, upcoming events in the city, and popular attractions.
But you can also check the current weather and book a hotel in the Bing Travel app, without having to open it up and type “Paris” again.
In the same way, your itinerary and budget, whether they are saved on your laptop or in the cloud, are right there. And of course, we’ll show you the great web results you’ve come to expect from Bing.
“Paris” isn’t just a single file or a search query in an app: it is a concept, full of both meaning and context, and we’ll bring its unique meaning to your digital life, all in one place.
Road Trip Companion app for Windows Phone
At the Build developer conference keynote today, one of the demonstrations involved an update to Bing Maps that included a tour of Valencia with 3D images and a "guide" with robot voice.
Users could ask questions, such as "who is the architect?" and relevant information would be returned, thanks to voice recognition.
Expedia booking integration and Bing images integration made the app look impressive, but it wasn't yet available for testing.
Overall search improvement benefits travel
UPDATE: 5pm ET
Carolina Milanesi, research vice president, consumer devices, at Gartner, tells Tnooz:
I think the improved search capabilities will enhanced the experience for users searching in a travelling context.
Generally search and context will become more important going forward, making it ideal for users to take advantage of apps that can relate to their likes and dislikes and relate them to their location.
Enhancements to the Travel app
Launched last summer, Microsoft's Windows 8 gave much more prominence to travel. Its Travel App gave a visually driven presentation of hotels (as the video, below, demonstrates).
One small change: In the new update, Frommers content has disappeared, presumably due to complications resulting from the recent sale of that publishing brand.
The Windows 8.1 touch-to-buy feature, which allows you to buy apps from the Windows Store by using your fingerprint instead of a password isn't yet available for the travel tools as bundled for free. But developers can add this feature to travel apps with a couple of API calls.
One of the striking things about the Windows 8.1 presentation today in San Francisco, broadcast live on the Internet, is how travel images are used to illustrate nearly all of the screenshots of Windows devices in action. The way Apple presentations tend to have connections to music, Microsoft presentations tend to emphasize travel.
You can preview the update at http://preview.windows.com, but it's not recommended yet for the general public.
Related news from elsewhere on the web: Bing Translator App for Windows Now Available