Introducing the Bing Pulse and the Bing Interactive State of The Union Experience

The following is a post from Mark Penn, Corporate Vice President at Microsoft.


On February 12th at 9pm ET, America will tune into one of the most anticipated events on the political calendar – the State of the Union address.

However, “tuning in” to the State of the Union means more than just sitting down in front of the television. A recent Bing survey found nearly 75 percent of Americans identified themselves as active participants or observers in online political discussions. As that number grows, the way we consume and interact with the news is undergoing an unprecedented transformation. Search can do even more at pivotal moments where customers need a deeper level of information and act as a companion experience to live events such as the State of the Union Address.

With that in mind, Bing is embarking on one of its most ambitious projects yet: hosting what we expect to be the largest interactive State of the Union experience in history at Bing.com/Politics. Scheduled to go live at 12 p.m. Pacific on February 9th, the site will be a non-partisan online destination designed to meet this growing need for up-to-the-minute political information and second-screen experiences that are a great companion to political broadcasts.

Since we launched Bing, we’ve been hard at work to deliver relevant, useful search results. At its heart, Bing is really about empowering people with knowledge – by helping customers make sense of all the information on the web, in social networks, and in the world around them so that they can accomplish more in their everyday lives. Powered by Bing search technology and its unique social search experience, Bing.com/Politics also builds upon the popularity of our previous Bing Elections 2012 site, which drew nearly 8 million visitors on Elections Night.

Tomorrow, in partnership with FOX News Channel and Foxnews.com, we will launch the Bing Pulse, which will for the first time enable Americans to give real-time feedback on the President’s speech. The Bing Pulse will allow people to join the conversation by “voting” every five seconds on their reactions to the President’s speech. Real time results of the Bing Pulse will be shown at Bing.com/Politics and on FOX News Channel. We think this will be the largest live online poll in history.

Bing.com/Politics is also unveiling its social sentiment tracker, the Bing Beat, which will analyze social sentiment on Twitter associated with the State of the Union, such as immigration, gun control, and the fiscal cliff.


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The Bing interactive experience will be a new “first” in the rich history of the State of the Union address, offering a one-stop-shop of relevant news, results and social media analysis to help people extract meaning among the deluge of analog and digital information that characterizes key moments in times like these. For the first hundred years of our republic, the constitutionally required “State of the Union” was generally done as a written report from the President delivered to Congress, rather than a speech. In 1913, President Woodrow Wilson established the modern tradition of speaking to a joint session of Congress. But, the public couldn’t listen live until President Calvin Coolidge’s address was broadcast on radio in 1923. In 1947, President Harry Truman was the first President to deliver a televised address.


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Now, 100 years after President Wilson’s address to a joint session of Congress, we hope we are setting a new standard by using the Internet and Bing’s big data technology to allow all Americans to participate live and share their reactions in real time. As a former pollster, I’m excited to present this new opportunity for all Americans to “talk back” and let the nation know how they feel about the major issues.

At Bing.com/Politics users can:

  • WATCH the speech live, with commentary from FOX News pundits and other political experts via Twitter;
  • PARTICIPATE in the Bing Pulse survey and see how others are reacting to the speech;
  • TRACK social sentiment on Twitter across key State of the Union policy issues such as gun control, immigration, and the fiscal cliff;
  • FILTER news from left, center and right-leaning national and local sources with the unique Bing news selector;
  • ACCESS original videos of former President Jimmy Carter and former Speaker Newt Gingrich on the State of the Union address; and
  • SEARCH with Bing.com and you’ll see relevant social results from friends and experts you trust. Bing.com is taking social search to a new level with the interactive State of the Union experience.

…all without having to open a second tab on their browsers.

By bringing together Bing’s capabilities to bring high-quality search results, news, images, social commentary and more to the State of the Union address, we hope to enable a deeper level of participation in the national dialog at this important moment our national political life. Visit Bing.com/Politics to join the largest interactive State of the Union experience in history and see another reason to choose Bing over Google.

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