A new ad-free version of Bing Search Engine, ‘Bing For Schools’ is now available for private and public schools in the U.S. Being a special program released for schools, this version of Bing includes strict privacy protections and filtering options. The special filter blocks the adult content and enhances the privacy protection features. Under this no-cost program, students from registered schools will no longer see adult content or ads while searching on the web.
‘Bing for Schools’ initially includes 800,000 students from several US school including Detroit Country Day School, Unified School District, Atlanta Public Schools, Los Angeles Unified School District, the Fresno and more. The number of schools will supposedly extend in the near future.
Says Microsoft:
We believe that schools should have the choice to make sure those searches are safer, more private, and ad-free. For schools in the search pilot, all of the school’s Bing searches will have three key enhancements: Removal of all advertisements from search results, Automatic strict filtering to help block adult content & Augmented privacy protections.
This service is intended for both primary and secondary schools having students of age-group 5-18. As per the official news release by Microsoft, ‘Bing for Schools’ is a part of “Scroogled” campaign where Microsoft targets Google’s services.
‘Bing For School’ website includes a statement saying, “When students use Google for searches in school, they are shown ads that can distract from their studies”.
Microsoft has also added Bing Rewards feature where people can earn credits for their schools by searching the web using mobile device or desktop. Schools earning 30,000 credits will receive a Microsoft Surface RT tablet.
