If you read our Bing Blog, read the Telegraph, Stuff Magazine or if you have recently searched for tickets for a gig or an event on Bing you are aware of a very cool new feature that just launched in the UK called ‘Bing Events’. It is the first time a major search engine has provided a fully comprehensive events listing with all the details needed to ensure a fun night out. What is it and what could it mean to you? (Take a peek at Bing Blog, Telegraph, Stuff Magazine)

What is it?

The new search feature covers 90,000 events in over 10,000 venues in over 2,450 UK locations and is a great way to find tickets for a specific event or to find out what’s on near where you live.

How does it work?

Search for information on thousands of music, theatre, dance, festivals, family and sporting events. Simply search for the name of a place plus the word ‘events’ and then click on the events tab to find out what’s happening close by. Or, when on the lookout for when a particular band or artist is playing,  search ‘band name’ e.g. Bombay Bicycle Club plus the word ‘events’ and then click on the events tab. Sort by date, event category. Bing Events provides all the essential information such as: maps, directions, restaurants and parking in one central location.

Working at Microsoft has the benefit that sometimes you hear about cool new things before they are officially launched so with my husband’s birthday looming (never ‘needs’ anything which doesn’t mean I get away with not buying anything) I checked out tickets for Adele as we had just agreed she has a truly amazing voice.

Simply search for the artist + ‘tickets’ on Bing:

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To get a nice overview of dates, locations & prices (and to find out I was too late as Adele’s tour had moved up North):

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But if it would have been close to me I would have also found maps, directions, bars, restaurants and parking information all in one place to make it a really nice night out:

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This brought home to me that I’m actually quite bad at knowing what’s on. Skills obviously not obtained when I was at school and left event organising to my friends. They queued early morning in front of the post office (pre-internet years!) as a result I had to see Bon Jovi live three times . I should have learned a lesson.

Now here is the opportunity for the time-poor, event nitwits like me, those that want to organise an original family event, sport fans and more: if you search for a place name + ‘events’ a range of events will be listed for you:

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Perfect! This is by the way the first time a major search engine has provided a fully comprehensive events listing..

Some Entertainment Search Facts

  • Events is a top search session where 10% of UK searches are entertainment related and 2 % of these are music related. (Source: Microsoft Internal Research)
  • Over 6 million UK searches are based on buying tickets (Source: comScore June 2011).
    Finding events, festivals and things to do in the local area is in the UK Top 40 Tasks to do on the internet. (Source: Microsoft Internal Research)
  • Bing Events addresses the lifestyle of our core audience as 19.32% of them prefer to go out then to spend a quiet evening at home and that 70% of them like going to rock/pop concerts. (Source: UM TGI GB 2010) Bing Events makes it simpler for users to actually do these social tasks rather than just finding them.
  • Searching can take too long: 57% of search sessions take longer than a day Source: STC research. (Bing Events helps find the answers you need faster – taking less time for search sessions)

The opportunity for SMBs:

Bing Events also lists business events. We are working with a partner called Eventful, so if your business is organising an event that is open to the public and listed by Eventful – it will be shown by us too. Just like this tea room in Richmond did. If you like to advertise on Bing you should also check out adCenter.

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Have an eventful weekend!

 

Simone Schuurer – EMEA Community Site Manager