TechBytes: Bing's Better Results

Nov. 12, 2009— -- Microsoft's search engine Bing is looking to close the wide gap with Google. Bing will now pull more information and tools from other Web sites into its search results instead of offering links to other sites. For example, results pages will include information such as travel options, in-depth weather reports and product details. Bing will also be able to solve math problems and search for nutritional information. The improvements will begin to appear in the next few days.

Google is offering more storage for less money for its e-mail and photos services. G-mail and Picasa users can now buy 20 gigabytes of space for only $5 a year, which is twice as much storage for a quarter of the old price. It's also enough space for more than 10,000 pictures taken with a 5 mega-pixel camera. Google's move may force other online storage services to lower their prices.

New software can make it easier to tag your photos on Facebook. Photo Tagger is a new application from face.com that uses facial recognition technology and suggests tags for faces it identifies. It groups multiple shots of each person making it easier to tag large albums. The free program can also alert users when new pictures of them are uploaded to Facebook.

Technology continues to transform the way we shop for the holidays. A new survey finds more people intend to use social networks this year to find the right gift. Of those surveyed, 53 percent say they'll use a social networking site to research gift ideas, 52 percent plan to check wish lists of relatives and friends and 60 percent say they'll hunt for discounts and sales using social networks. Cell phones will also be an important tool for finding store locations, researching prices, looking for product information and hunting for discounts.