If you have been following along with Eric Larsens Save the Poles expedition you would know that he was on his way up to the summit of Mt. Everest to complete his third and final leg. Well late last night Eric made it to the Summit. Eric has now been to the South Pole, the North Pole and the Summit of Everest all within one calendar year. An accomplishment that has never been done before. Eric Larsen and his team on top of Mt.

As you read in Satyas post , today we announced a significant expansion of our partnership with Facebook, where Bing will provide much more personalized experiences to you by allowing you to bring your Facebook friends into your search experience. We think the addition of this new social signal will allow us to deliver a number of valuable enhancements into the Bing experience. Today, we want to share two features we will be rolling out in the days to come,

As you read in Satyas post , today we announced a significant expansion of our partnership with Facebook, where Bing will provide much more personalized experiences to you by allowing you to bring your Facebook friends into your search experience. We think the addition of this new social signal will allow us to deliver a number of valuable enhancements into the Bing experience. Today, we want to share two features we will be rolling out in the days to come,

Our latest Bings Best Windows 7 theme pack puts you in the middle of a storm on the plains, takes you ice fishing with a Kingfisher, and offers a seals eye view of a kelp forest. There are 18 wallpapers in all heres a sneak peak at a few of them: To download the full theme pack, go to the Windows Personalization Gallery . If you missed the other Bings Best themes, you can download them from the same site. Enjoy!

Can you believe it has already been one year since we were all introduced to Dr. Richard Bing ? Recently I re-watched Para Fuera A Portrait of the Life of Dr. Richard Bing which was an official selection at the 2010 Sundance Film festival and I was again moved by the accomplishments and selflessness that Dr. Bing has. I am grateful that he came here to spread his wings and that we have all benefited and have had the chance to learn from his desire to create.

Did October sneak up on you as fast as it did me? All I know is once the calendar reads October the Halloween preparations begin. Before anything else- before I dust off my box of Halloween decorations, before I figure out what all my friends plans are for that night- I head online to decide what to dress up like and more importantly to decide what to dress my kids in. OK, maybe not more importantly as one would suspect.

In the past month since REDU launched, we have seen the call for education reinvention thrust into the middle of a national conversation. The numbers are staggering a third of our students never graduate, US ranks 18 th out of 21 countries in math and science, over 1 million veteran teachers are set to retire. So, whether its Waiting for Superman , the Education Nation summit, or just over the news,

Bing photo contests have been something that we have had in the past to showcase the photo talent of our Bing enthusiasts on the Bing Homepage . We are now excited to be partnering up with the Windows Live team on a photo contest of their own. Last week they announced the release of the new Windows Live Essentials 2011 which includes Messenger, Mail, Photo Gallery, Movie Maker, Writer, Mesh and Family Safety.

In the past month since REDU launched, we have seen the call for education reinvention thrust into the middle of a national conversation. The numbers are staggering a third of our students never graduate, US ranks 18 th out of 21 countries in math and science, over 1 million veteran teachers are set to retire. So, whether its Waiting for Superman , the Education Nation summit, or just over the news,

Today Bing and Firefox announced that Bing will be included as one of the search engine choices within Firefox on both the Mac and PC. Were very excited to be included in the search engine choices in the upcoming version of Firefox. Having Bing in the out of the box list makes it easier than ever for the Firefox community to experience the benefits of Bing. We expect the Bing option to show up in an upcoming build of Firefox 4.

Today PewResearchCenter released a report that goes into depth on the rise in how we are researching products online . One of largest increases Pew found was how people are using the web to make their shopping and services decisions by comparing products and options online. We agree - in fact, we know how important having product information and reviews is to you before you make that purchasing decision. With that in mind,

Ashley and Mary-Kate Olsen have long been part of the style and fashion industry and on October 3 rd they will be unveiling their spring collection of The Row, their luxury apparel and accessories brand at Paris Fashion Week. And Bing will be there to bring you exclusive content from their show and will be the official search engine for The Row. Now for those of us that cant wait to see the latest trends for spring and love to see the behind the scenes of the fashion world,

It is hard to believe that Explorer Eric Larsen has begun the last leg of his Save the Poles expedition , which has taken him to Mt. Everest. Earlier this year Eric completed the first two legs of his journey to both the North and South Pole and now has started his accent up Mt. Everest.

Looking for information on startups at TechCrunch Disrupt so you can have your own angels dinner )oddly, no one accepted my invite to TGIFridays last night(? Look no further than the new Bing Visual Search gallery located here . Get the details on all the companies, latest news, tweets and other salient info about each startup at Disrupt. Sort by how much theyve raised, who funded them, when they were funded and more.

In conjunction with the launch of the new U.S. teacher resource, http://teach.gov , the Bing team is excited to present our own Teach Here map app. Teach Here presents a veteran or potential teacher with a simple way to search for teacher prep programs, state teaching certification offices, school district headquarters, and local teaching jobs. A great education depends heavily on having great teachers,

We are excited to announce another exciting update to the Bing for Mobile iPhone and iPod Touch app. Below we have highlighted a few of the new features: Travel - We know consumers love the Price Predicator on the PC, and now they can find it along with other great Bing Travel features on their iPhone. From the Bing for Mobile iPhone apps home screen, simply click on Travel. You can now see top deals from your home airport as well as last minute and weekend deals,

Arne Duncan, the U.S. secretary of education, fields your questions in an Oct. 1 webcast. Are crumbling schools putting our nations future at risk? Are our teachers prepared for the myriad challenges they meet in the classroom? Is frequent testing giving us a good idea of student success and failure, or distorting comprehensive education for the next generation?

We have recently updated the Bing for Mobile Blackberry app. You can now access Bing Maps by pressing the Bing Maps icon from your Blackberry device. We have also updated the home screen and added a launcher so you can access local, maps, directions and news faster. The video below gives you a good overview of the Bing for Mobile Blackberry app. Download the app today by visiting m.bing.

When we launched Bing over a year ago, we set out to shake up the search market and try new and innovative approaches to improve the search experience. Weve been pleased with the positive feedback weve heard from customers, and humbled to have seen some great momentum in our early months. Well continue to explore new approaches to search and interesting ways to engage users and increase awareness of Bing features. Today marks another step forward in that journey,

As the internet continues to evolve, we find there are more new signals coming in to search that enable us to provide customers with more relevant, real time and connected results. Our work with Twitter and Facebook over the last year or so has helped us create what is in effect a social layer for search that brings social information into the search experience in real time. This is an important investment for us at Bing.