back to article Microsoft fights Google for kids' attention with ad-free Bing for Schools

Microsoft is making a big play for the hearts and clicks of America's youth with the launch of Bing for Schools, which includes an advertising and porn-free search engine, free sponsored lesson plans, and Surface RT fondleslabs earned through a rewards program. "We already know that search is an important tool for kids in …

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  1. mark l 2 Silver badge

    No details on how this will work though, do the school register their IP range with Microsoft who then sends them off to a different set of servers when someone searches with bing or will the be a school.bing.com domain they have to visit to get the no ads, no porn searches?

    Since Microsoft are so keen to keep kids free of ads does this mean if you register your windows phone, surface tablet etc as being for a kid to use they will remove all ads from bing searches there as well?

  2. Herby

    Yeah, they made a BIG splash here.

    Lots of full page ads in the local paper. Of course, why not enable "child mode" for lots more searches in order to have them 'clean'.

    As for rewards: Done correctly, a nice script ought to get you a tablet with little effort. Maybe someone will publicize it for all to use. Now if I can put Android on it, it would be complete.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Yeah, they made a BIG splash here.

      Windows RT is a proper OS though. Not a malware infested Java wrapper like Android.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Patients needed I see.

    So, they hit start button in weaning the young.

    Nice.

    1. hplasm
      Devil

      Re: Patients needed I see.

      They have a Start Button again?

      1. Michael Habel
        FAIL

        Re: Patients needed I see.

        Yes Microsoft have "listened" to the wants of their Customers and, will bring the Start Button back for Windows 8.1... The catch is... "The Start Button" ≠ The Start Menu... That was in fact being asked for...

  4. Graham Marsden
    Pirate

    "the automatic blocking of pornography"

    That sounds like a challenge...

    1. Tom 35

      Re: "the automatic blocking of pornography"

      I assume it's just blocking porn in search, the school network is likely to already be filtered.

      1. Captain DaFt

        Re: "the automatic blocking of pornography"

        " I assume it's just blocking porn in search, the school network is likely to already be filtered. "

        If it's anything like my school was, 'filtered' should be 'filled'.

    2. plrndl

      Re: "the automatic blocking of pornography"

      That's guaranteed to get spawn a new generation of hackers.

  5. Tom 35

    More private?

    "Bing Rewards points (which as awarded for using Microsoft search and services while logged in) "

    So much for private.

    If it takes 60 students to get a surface I assume it's the school getting the goodies in exchange for all the kids search data.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: More private?

      Bing Rewards is just Microsoft's Tesco Clubcard scheme it currently runs in America for people currently using Bing and Microsoft have given people the option of donating their points to a school of their choice to get them the free equipment. There's been no mention of the Bing Rewards scheme being extended to the Bing for School's searches.

  6. Don Jefe
    Facepalm

    I've got a great idea! Since the Surface isn't selling, lets give them to children! They're too stupid to realize how awful they are!

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Ad Free ?

    The whole exercise is one bloody big advert for MS products aimed at kids. It' all very sinister and smacks of the hitler youth.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Ad Free ?

      I'm sorry but what?!? Sinister? Hitler Youth? Do you even know what those terms mean? Did you even read the news article?

      Apple, Google and Microsoft are all competing to get their products in schools. Google has been clear from the offset their biggest growth in Chromebooks will be through education, Miicrosoft can't compete on price so instead its competing on feature set and in this instance the feature set are "more child friendly" settings. It's purely the competition driven nature of a Capitalist economy we all live in.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Ad Free ?

        Dear Matt Evans

        Sinister - derives from the latin sinistra for left handed.

        Hitler Youth - Indoctrination of children with the ideas of National Socialism by a totalitarian regime.

        Pure capitalism - No state control as the state does dot exist in a pure theoretical capitalist economy. A natural effect of pure capitalism is a monopoly. All states are partially socialist by the very existence of government.

        Don't assume I am as thick as the people you normally associate with !

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Ad Free ?

          Thick, maybe not.

          Ignorant, yes.

          Last time I looked, MS we're not involved in ethnic cleansing & genocide. Granted the way people go on about them on here, you could be forgiven for thinking they were.

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Ad Free ?

          An insult? Wow, I can't possibly compete with your intellectual prowess.

          All I can do in response is show that copying dictionary definitions does not equal knowledge as your original post, in response to a news article about Microsoft offering an ad free version of Bing to compete against Google for school contracts now reads as;

          The whole exercise is one bloody big advert for MS products aimed at kids. It' all very left handed and smacks of the Indoctrination of children with the ideas of National Socialism by a totalitarian regime.

          Of course we must then ask what is wrong with being left handed? what type of Socialism are we talking about? Are we refering to Democratic, or libertarian docialism? Why exactly would a private organisation that is neither the state nor the populous promote the notion of being socially run either by the state or the populous?

          Of course we don't need to ask questions as your insult trumps everything.

          1. Don Jefe
            Headmaster

            Re: Ad Free ?

            You do know the whole 'Apple is for creative people' was originally part of their national marketing to schools right? It was picked back up more recently but Apple has been aiming directly at elementary school children far longer than MS.

            Back when buying computers was a really big deal for a school they even had brochures mailed out to parents on the PTA (Parent Teachers Associations) committes with stuff like "Desktop Publishing from Apple/Mac will unleash students creativity and prepare them for the future. Tell your school board to purchase the Mac II" or something very similar to that: All glossy and with 'digital' looking backgrounds and very COMPUTER fonts, in the best '80's style of course.

            I've got no horse in this race, just wanted to point out that all big name tech companies try to 'indoctrinate' kids and Apple's been doing it longer than any of them.

          2. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: Ad Free ?

            Matt Evans,

            No you can't compete with my intellectual prowess, as demonstrated by your singular lack of comprehension about the term sinister in that you mysteriously seem to view it as some current persecution of left handed individuals. Additionally on your part you have failed to grasp that I was referencing to German National Socialism of the 1920s-1940s (big clue there, Hitler) and not some unrelated ideology that I am totally unfamiliar with i.e. libertarian docialism. Is libertarian docialism some of political view that apathetic Guardian readers hold ?

            When your balls drop, voice breaks and have children of your own you will realise just how odious this type of child exploitation that Microsoft is engaging in; along with many other companies.

            Now run along and fuckety-bye.

            PS don't ever insult my intelligence again by making statements such as:

            "Do you even know what those terms mean?"

  8. sisk

    Bing? Never.

    The school district I work for will never use Bing again. Ever. It has nothing to do with Microsoft or the quality of the search engine. It's just that a few years back a (rather stupid and very sick) teacher used Bing to dance around our filters and show a grumble flick to a bunch of 7th graders.

    (This was not one of those accidental public shows you hear so much about...the fool threw naked bodies up on the projector in front of a bunch of 12 year olds on purpose. As I said, rather stupid and very sick.)

    And yes, I realize the failing is in our filters (outsourced, by the way), but just try to convince the higher ups of that.

    1. Charles Manning

      naked bodies are sick??

      Is it really healthy to believe that a naked body is a perversion?

      1. Robert Grant

        Re: naked bodies are sick??

        Isn't that the flasher's manifesto?

      2. sisk

        Re: naked bodies are sick??

        Is it really healthy to believe that a naked body is a perversion?

        Naked bodies? No. Showing porn to a bunch of preteens in the hopes that some of them get ideas? Yes. The incident in question was hardcore porn, not anatomy textbooks.

        Filters once again in being rubbish shocker, if using Bing counts as dancing around them.

        Technically it was Bing's cache, which wasn't blocked because the filters we had at the time would only block at the domain level. Very rubbish indeed, which I'd been saying for a while (for different reasons). You could do the same with Google's cache for about a week out of every couple months (they'd hardcode a block to the cache, Google would change something, the block would break, it'd take them a week to hardcode another block, lather, rinse, repeat). We have much better filters now, but they're still outsourced.

    2. Robert Grant

      Re: Bing? Never.

      "Dance around our filters"

      Filters once again in being rubbish shocker, if using Bing counts as dancing around them.

  9. oldcoder

    Bribery. Sheer bribery.

    Bing must be failing... and to give away Surface RT makes it sheer bribery.

    Why don't they just go back to paying people to use Bing? At least the cash, unlike Windows RT, is useful for many things.

  10. frank ly

    'A typical lesson plan for maths students...'

    If a supplier of tablet computers builds a few more devices than it can sell, and doesn't sell as many as it wants to, after spending more on the advertising budget than it recieves in revenues; then by how much can it discout the initial retail price before the situation becomes totally embarassing?

  11. W.O.Frobozz

    Bing bong!

    Bing is bung. I bet "Bing for Schools" will be as successful as their "Games For Windows" initiative.

  12. Mikel

    Los Angeles

    Must have nothing to do with the plans to put an iPad in the hands of every one of Los Angeles School District's 640,000 students.

    http://www.engadget.com/2013/07/26/los-angeles-school-district-ipad-scheme/

  13. silent_count

    "enhanced privacy protections'

    Why do I get the feeling that "enhanced privacy protections", coming from Microsoft, means "your kid's homework will be graded by a NSA staffer"? Which, let's be fair, is a good lesson for what children can expect as they progress towards adulthood.

  14. Shaun 2

    I for one, applaud the effort. If it's relatively easy to setup, and doesn't require anything from my users, I'm happy to set it up........ when it's available in the UK.........

  15. Anonymous Custard
    Joke

    Take that...

    Microsoft is also adding its expensive stockpile of Surface RT tablets to the program, by letting anyone use Bing Rewards points (which as awarded for using Microsoft search and services while logged in) to buy a fondleslab for the school of their choice.

    So hard-working and enterprising schools can inflict RT's on other schools in the area, so handicapping them and improving their own chances of beating them in the school comparisons?

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Meanwhile in Amsterdam

    They are rolling out Bong for schools

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