An announcement from Microsoft and Local Corporation was made concerning a new partnership which will allow product inventory from local stores to be displayed in Bing’s search results. Local Corp’s Krillion Local Product Database will feed to Bing for inclusion in search results, thus improving the local search experience for people using Bing.
The Krillion database is already populated with many national-local retailers including Best Buy, Costco, Express, Fry’s Home Depot, Kmart, Lowe’s Nordstrom, Orchard Supply, Office Depot, Radio Shack, Rite Aid, Sears, Staples, Target, True Value, Wal-Mart and others. The current inventory of local stores from these and other retailers is fed into the Krillion system, which is now used by Bing.
Local Corporation has been providing this type of information to their users since 2011 when they bought Krillion. On their popular local.com website, users could search for anything from in-stock electronics to fresh fruits and vegetables in a local supermarket. Many users appreciated having the ability to use this technology, while still shopping locally.
This deal will provide Bing with an excellent service which will improve the already very popular local search functions. Bing, it can be assumed, hopes that this improved local search will give them a leg up on Google, who has no similar services available. Google offers an ‘in nearby stores’ inventory filter when using the shopping search, but the results aren’t fed directly from stores.
There has been no word on what percentage of local searches on Bing will trigger the results from this new partnership. They also haven’t given word on exactly when these search results will be incorporated into Bing’s searches. Undoubtedly, however, Bing will want to get this up and running as quickly as possible.
