Microsoft releases a beta version of Bing Pulse to gauge the sentiment of crowds

Bing is Microsoft’s brand for search and some cloud services, but that doesn’t stop them from applying the Bing branding to anything dealing with advertising or polling. Microsoft has a tool called Bing Pulse which can be used for television program audience polling. The technology enables the producer to pose questions to the audience and have them respond via their devices’ web browser.

Microsoft has created a new version of Bing Pulse, which is currently in beta form and can be tested for free. The technology isn’t tied to television though, it could be used to poll audiences at an event, or viewers of a program. Essentially the speaker at an event could pose a question to the attendees and then display the feedback on screens during the event. Bing Pulse enables companies or organizations to gain near-real time data on current topics of discussion. Using this information, producers or speakers could shift the direction of a discussion or debate.

Branding this technology Bing is a bit odd, because it has little to do with web search. Microsoft has probably felt that they have no other brand which represents polling an audience so they settled with Bing. There was some question of the longevity of the Bing brand since the Windows and Windows Phone apps went to MSN. Now it seems Microsoft is refining Bing to mean search and advertising, with a few odd balls like most of their other brands.