14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft today introduced a new feature called Bing Predictions that helps users determine the winners of some popular contests, such as American Idol, The Voice, and more.
The company said on its blog that the so-called Bing Predictions option uses input from search strings, but also social media services such as Facebook and Twitter to determine what candidate has the biggest chances to win a specific competition.
“The central idea behind the direct approach is that winners and losers correspond to popularity. In broad strokes, we define popularity as the frequency and sentiment of searches combined with social signals and keywords. Placing these signals into our model, we can predict the outcome of an event with high confidence,” Microsoft says.
The Voice, American Idol and Dancing With The Stars are only the first three shows supported by this new feature, but Microsoft promises to enhance it even more in the future in order to provide predictions for a wider array of contests, including the presidential elections.
Obviously, Bing Predictions is only available in the United States for the time being and there’s no word whether the company is planning to expand it beyond the boundaries of its home country or not.