Bing Search does equations and text transcriptions now

Microsoft's Bing Search engine is doing quite well as we have found out in 2017 and it should not come as a surprise that Microsoft updates the search engines functionality regularly to compete with the almighty Google Search engine.

The company's Bing team teased a large number of improvements and new features in a new blog post on the official Bing blog called "This month on Bing: Visual Search expanded, Education, American Sign Language, and more".

Some of the features and improvements are available already, at least for certain user groups, while others will become available later.

Solve mathematical equations

Probably the most exciting new feature is Bing's Math Solver. It is part of the Bing application for Apple's iOS operating system and soon also for Bing on Android.

Anyone may use the new functionality to take a photo of mathematical equations to use Bing to solve them automatically.

All that it takes is to take a picture of the equation and tap on the new "Math" button in the interface to have it solved. Bing won't just throw the solution at you but it will provide step by step instructions on how it got there.

Also onboard are links to educational sites such as the Kahn Academy website to watch lectures and grow mathematical skills.

Text Transcriptions

The second new feature, which will be added to the iOS version of Bing in the coming weeks, adds options to transcribe text automatically to Bing.

The feature works similarly to the Math Solver: take a picture of text, select the Text option, and use copy or search options that are provided to copy the text to the Clipboard, share it, or run searches automatically.

Other changes

The following changes were made to the Bing website. Note that the changes may only available in select regions such as the United States.

You can change the region with a click on Menu > Settings > Country & Region > Change your country/region, and selecting a different country or region from the listing.

• Images Search's dialog box supports dragging and dropping images, pasting URLs or taking a photo.
• Set of science, math and language tools added to Bing in "carousel" format. Selection of an entry, e.g. human skeleton, displays information directly on the search results page.
• New Sign Language experience on Bing. Experience offers 159 videos of words and 13 phrases in American Sign Language.
• Answers for NFL questions such as "which team had the most touchdowns". Bing's database contains stats from Season 2000 onward.

Closing Words

Bing improves with every update. While Android users will have to wait for Math Solver to become available, it is certainly something that could be interesting to children and also adults who have a hard time understanding math.

That Bing displays step-by-step explanations and not just the solution is great as it may help understand how mathematical equations are solved.

Now You: What is your take on the announced improvements?