Bing and Microsoft engineers are working on new back-end search infrastructure, with the goal of delivering faster and more relevant search results for users. Known as “Tiger,” the new index-serving technology is being incorporated into Bing globally.
A gradual rollout of Tiger, described as the “next-generation index serving platform for Bing,” began in August, a process which is expected to be completed by the end of the year, a Microsoft spokesperson told Search Engine Watch. Tiger’s architecture will improve information retrieval efficiency and reduce the company’s costs, the company says.
“In Tiger, we not only look at improved efficiency but also look at new ways of processing queries,” Yongdong Wang, general manager of Microsoft’s Search Technology Center in Asia, said in a video discussing Tiger. ”These new ways will enable scenarios where we can significantly improve the relevance of the results seen by users.”
Bing will accomplish this improved efficiency by using Solid State Disk (SSD) technology, which will improve Bing’s processes for checking its index against search queries.
If this all sounds a bit familiar, perhaps it’s because Google performed a similar search indexing update, known as Caffeine. Google’s Caffeine update was meant to speed up searches by 50 percent while increasing accuracy and relevancy.
Bing, which has been criticized for its massive financial losses, has been busy making changes lately to its search results, most recently adding Action Buttons and adaptive search, and continue chipping away at Google’s 64 percent search market share and getting its name out through a partnership with the CW network. Bing also recently gave its homepage a new look.