Microsoft offers ad-free Bing for the classroom to battle Google

The long-running rivalry between Microsoft Corp and Google Inc is turning into a schoolyard brawl. Microsoft on Wednesday opened a new front against the world's No. 1 search provider by piloting an ad-free offering for educational users of Bing, its search engine that for years has trailed Google.

Under the free program called "Bing for Schools," students in participating school districts will no longer see ads or adult content when they do Internet searches. Microsoft, which has signed up the Los Angeles Unified School District and Atlanta Public Schools among other school districts, has pitched Bing as an alternative at a time of rising public concern over how Internet companies are tracking their users' every move to target the ads they display.

Ad-free Bing for students

As part of the program, Microsoft will also offer free Surface tablets and course materials for teaching youngsters about Internet use. Stefan Weitz, Microsoft's director of search, said the program would help expose young users to Microsoft products. "We hope that we demonstrate the quality of Bing to teachers and students and also their parents, and once they see how good it is, we hope to see increased usage outside of schools too," said Weitz.

Bing, with 18 percent of the search market share, has long trailed Google, at 67 percent, according to data from ComScore, despite an aggressive effort to close the gap. Microsoft's move is the latest sign that technology companies are targeting the education market as a way to reach children who will become the next generation of consumers.

The new Bing campaign, framed in the context of privacy concerns, is part of a broad, anti-Google marketing campaign directed by a team of political consultants including Mark Penn, long-time adviser to Bill and Hillary Clinton.

In recent months Microsoft has ramped up allegations posted to its "Scroogled" website, including claims that Google violates its users' trust by scanning emails to target ads. Microsoft has also backed promotion of a "Do Not Track" protocol that would discourage online ad targeting. "People just don't think it's appropriate to show ads to children in a learning environment," Weitz said.

A Google spokesman declined to immediately comment.

While Microsoft relies heavily on software sales, more than 95 percent of Google's revenue come from ads, and a significant portion of that comes from its dominant search engine. Google and Microsoft have also been vying to get schools to adopt their productivity software. Google has been offering a discount for its Google Apps suite, which it hopes can replace programs such as Microsoft Word on school computers.

Tech companies, led by Apple Inc , have also competed fiercely to get hardware into the classroom, even while academic studies are divided over the effectiveness of gadgets in improving student performance.

Following Apple, Google in December announced a program to give its Chromebook computers to schools for $99 each. Six months later, Microsoft began offering its Surface RT tablet to educational institutions for $199, a discount of more than 50 percent.

As part of the Bing campaign, school districts whose students use the Microsoft search engine win points, which they can redeem for Surface tablets. Aleigha Henderson-Rosser, the director of instructional technology at Atlanta Public Schools, said she had no qualms about receiving aid from tech companies. She also said Atlanta schools will not be paid money to participate in the Bing program.

Henderson-Rosser said she will try to rally parents to use Bing to help win Surface tablets for schools that cannot afford the technology. She said, "I'm seeing it as a community effort to fill in the gaps."

Reuters

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Surface 2: Nvidia boss confirms Microsoft is prepping second iteration of its tablet

Chipmaker Nvidia confirmed Thursday what many have been suspecting – Microsoft is working on version two of its Surface tablet, despite having recently taken a $900 million write-down on the RT version following poor sales.

To avoid its successor suffering the same lukewarm reception, designers at Microsoft’s R&D department are likely rummaging through the drawer marked “bells and whistles”, though the box labeled “mind-blowing extras” may also need to be dipped into.

The news that the Redmond-based company is prepping the next version of the tablet comes courtesy of Nvidia CEO Jen-Hsun Huang (via Cnet), who said his company is “working really hard” with Microsoft to get the slate ready. An approximate release date isn’t mentioned

Huang, whose company provided the chip for the first version of the RT, believes he knows what’s been holding the device back – no, not the expensive price tag, poor battery life, average display or [enter your suggestion here], but the absence of Outlook at launch.

“It is the killer app for Windows,” Huang told Cnet, adding, “Now we’re going to bring it with the second-generation Surface. We’re working really hard on it, and we hope that it’s going to be a big success.” It’s hard to believe the inclusion of one piece of software is going to send Surface sales soaring, but Huang appears certain in his belief.

Launched in October last year, Microsoft’s Surface RT – together with the Pro version which followed – have failed to turn the tablet market on its head. They didn’t even turn it on its side. Mixed reviews and disappointing sales have forced the computer giant to offer discounts and promotions with the Surface in a bid to shift more units, though it’s not clear if these have had any real effect.

With PC sales falling and the tablet sector booming, Microsoft will desperately want to see the second iteration of its device grab a decent share of the market. Recent reports suggest it’s looking at launching smaller Surface tablets too, to take on, for example, the Nexus 7, iPad Mini and Amazon’s Kindle Fire offerings. Some have suggested Microsoft could dump the RT version and concentrate instead on the more powerful Pro model, though Microsoft has said nothing on the issue.

While Steve Ballmer’s company can easily handle any losses incurred by the first-generation model, another version that fails to capture the imagination of consumers would be a far more serious issue for the company as it attempts to tap a new revenue stream.

Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan). As far as electronics are concerned, he's in the right place, with the East Asian country continuing to produce a plethora of gadgets and gizmos for tech addicts around the world. When not writing for Digital Trends, Trevor can be found out and about taking far too many photos, or in front of his computer trying to sort them all out.

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HomeOS for the smart home from Microsoft

HomeMaestro is a prototype of a home automation system that I built as part of my research to address the numerous issues plaguing current home automation systems. It consists of two main features: 1) a tangible, appliance-scripting interface, and 2) an "app store" for quickly and easily downloading functionality to the home. Or, as I like to pitch it, HomeMaestro is a platform for intuitively defining home appliance behavior.

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Home Maestro

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