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"Microsoft regularly introduces new features to its Bing search engine \u2014 such as the coming 3D maps \u2014 but often those features can't be used outside of Bing. That changes as of today with the launch of the Bing Platform for developers.\nAnnounced today at Microsoft's Build 2013 conference, the Bing Platform will let app developers create experiences in their apps around Bing's services. For example, if an app wants to perform real-time translation of text, it could tie into the Bing Translator Control API for that capability, so the developer won't have to create the service from scratch. \nSEE ALSO: How to Install Windows 8 Without Ditching Windows 7\n\nOr, more pointedly, developers can use Microsoft's services instead of Google's.\nThe Bing Platform offers developers three kinds of services: First is \"Entities,\" which bring Bing's \"deep knowledge\" about various subjects to apps. In a demo at the Build 2013 keynote, Microsoft Vice President Gurdeep Singh Pall showed how the Bing Entities API could be used to show information about an architect of a particular building in a maps app.\nThe second Bing Platform service helps developers introduce \"natural and intuitive\" user experiences. A major component of this is integrating voice interaction with apps, but it also includes things like optical-character recognition, so an app can interpret the text on a sign or document as information and not just an image.\nFinally, Bing Platform has the \"awareness of the physical world,\" which extends beyond simple interpretation of location, letting apps \"put the user at the center of the action.\" That implies augmented-reality experiences with real-time response to the location of the user's device and the ways he is interacting with it.\nThe Bing Platform will let developers more easily create apps with features such as text-to-speech, real-time traffic and translation. It also gives them motivation to integrate Microsoft services into their apps instead of those of a third party.\nAlthough Bing has a small market share compared to Google, Microsoft is investing hundreds of millions of dollars into the service, and it powers search on many devices beyond PCs and Windows Phones, including BlackBerry phones, Kindle tablets and Apple's Siri.\nWill developers favor the Bing Platform over other services? And will it rival Google's offerings? You tell us. Give us your thoughts on Microsoft's new developer tools in the comments.\nImage by Mashable, Pete Pachal"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2013/06/26/bing-platform/>