Bing now supports searches with emoji, meaning you can insert or paste a range of emoji icons like hearts, smiley faces, food graphics, or any combination thereof, for some interesting, though not always useful, results.
It’s a novelty feature, yes, but still fun. And one that could help Bing draw at least some attention away from Google. Google at the moment does not give results for emoji searches, though its auto-complete technology does recognise them. Yahoo, meanwhile, also supports emoji searches.
Bing’s tool is available in all English markets, the search engine said, offered as an homage to the shorthand’s popularity.
The function could be used to better understand the meaning of an emoji, Bing said. A search for the smiley face emoji did return a link to the Wikipedia page for laughter.
Some searches delivered results that were quite intelligent, and literal. A search combining an airplane with a helicopter returned the Wikipedia page for the Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey military aircraft, which looks like a helicopter and airplane in one.
It also returned, quite literally, a link to a Howstuffworks video on a weird aeroplane-helicopter hybrid.
IDG News Service
Ltd
