Microsoft Brings Local Into Bing

• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, September 5, 2013

Bing has inked a deal with Irvine, Calif.-based Local, an online media company, to provide location-based product data in the company's search engine results.

Local operates Krillion, a shopping platform that provides data on retail locations, brands, categories, and product availability for the search engine's local product results. The deal should fit well with Bing Maps and its product listing ad services that marketers should see soon.

Bing announced in August changes to its product search feature that now indexes tens of millions of individual products. The technology uses advanced machine learning technology and intent signals to serve product pricing and availability directly from the merchant in search results. New product ads with photos and pricing provide the ability to quickly see offers from merchants across the Web. The feature replaces Bing Shopping.

Sherry Thomas-Zon, VP of shopping at Local, said the company provides Bing with "richer data" aggregated from more than 75,000 locations from brand and retailers through a licensing partnership. The data set includes everything from the stores, brands like Electrolux, and available locations to products, pricing, inventory and more.

Consumers increasingly research products and services mostly online before making a purchase in stores. In fact, 88% of consumers research before they buy something, consulting an average of 10.4 sources, according to Google.

Mobile devices continue to make it easier to do that research anywhere. As many as 80% of U.S. smartphone users do not leave home without their device, according to Google. It's at that time that brands can serve relevant content to get the attention of potential and existing customers.