BING IN THE CLASSROOM: The classroom appears to be the new frontier for Microsoft's ongoing PR war against Google. (The "Don't get Scroogled!" campaign is still alive strong.) On April 22, Microsoft publicly unveiled an ad-free version of its search engine, Bing, dedicated for K-12 classrooms. According to the announcement, Bing in the Classroom "removes ads and blocks searches from being used for personalized advertising." Its creator called the program "a digital literacy program...to inspire curiosity and learn by doing" in an interview with VentureBeat.
As part of the campaign, Microsoft also added new features to its Bing Rewards program for lets users earn credits for Surface tablets for a school of their choice. The company claims that over 4.5 million students are using Bing in the Classroom, "including those in the five largest districts in the U.S."
