Bing reacts to SafeSurf controversy

The new Microsoft search Bing cam out few weeks ago, with the implementation of  Smart Motion Preview, which allows the thumbnails of the video search result to play when the cursor hovers on it. I found it was an excellent idea to have that small and short preview handy, without going to the site. However combined with the  SafeSearch, where user can turn on/off to let adult contents be part of the search result, has stirred up controversy. Parents, educators afraid this SafeSearch is too easy to switch off.

Today, Microsoft Bing team has made two changes (posted from their Twitter feed)

• First, potentially explicit images and video content will now be coming from a separate single domain, explicit.bing.net. This is invisible to the end customer, but allows for filtering of that content by domain which makes it much easier for customers at all levels to block this content regardless of what the SafeSearch settings might be. This makes it much easier for filtering software to block unwanted content if SafeSearch has been turned off.
• In addition, they will begin returning source url information in the query string for images and video content so that companies who already use this method of filtering will be able to catch explicit content on Bing along with everything else they are already blocking for their customers. An example of such a query string is: http://ts2.explicit.bing.net/images/thumbnail.aspx?q=974382499649&id=12ae77a7fed979b0502840bedacd2552&url=http%3a%2f%2fwww.explicitsite.com%2fexplicit-picturegoeshere.jpg

So now you have it!

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