Bing goes live

Bing search engine

Bing, Microsoft's new search engine, has gone live in the UK this morning.

Click here for our first look review of Bing.

It was announced last week but was only made available on this side of the Atlantic from today.

The search engine, launched as a replacement for Microsoft's Live Search, is in direct competition with search engine giants Google, as well as the recently launched Wolfram Alpha.

Although this site is a beta and does not include all the new features available in the US, Microsoft has said that the full version will be here within the next six to 12 months.

Steve Ballmer, chief executive of Microsoft, is positive about the design of the search engine, or what Microsoft is deeming a "decision engine."

In a statement, he said: "Today, search engines do a decent job of helping people navigate the web and find information, but they don't do a very good job of enabling people to use the information they find."

"When we set out to build Bing, we grounded ourselves in a deep understanding of how people really want to use the web."

Click here to read our history of the search engine.

Jennifer Scott

Jennifer Scott is a former freelance journalist and currently political reporter for Sky News. She has a varied writing history, having started her career at Dennis Publishing, working in various roles across its business technology titles, including ITPro. Jennifer has specialised in a number of areas over the years and has produced a wealth of content for ITPro, focusing largely on data storage, networking, cloud computing, and telecommunications.

Most recently Jennifer has turned her skills to the political sphere and broadcast journalism, where she has worked for the BBC as a political reporter, before moving to Sky News.