What you need to know
- Microsoft has added more features to its Bing/covid tracker.
- Localized data is now available in some areas.
- 32 languages are now supported.
- More features are coming to this important tool.
Microsoft's Bing team has been putting in extra hours to make its recently announced Bing.com/covid tracker for the coronavirus pandemic even better.
Over the weekend the team rolled out numerous new features to make the information presented more useful to those looking for more update to date information in an easy-to-use website. Some of those features announced by Bing's General Manager, Michael Schechter, now include:
- Location support including county-level data for many US states, and state-level data for both India and Japan
- News/video should be relevant to the location selected
- Now available in 32 languages
- Trend charts
- NEW: Localized data for Italy, Spain, Germany, France, Switzerland, Pakistan, and Russia
Update: 3/24 More locations have been added to the tracker for localized data (listed above).
Schechter also notes that Microsoft will be "...bringing more online as soon as we ensure the data quality is sufficient" and the team is "continuing to roll out quality improvements thanks to your feedback. Many frequently requested features are also coming soon as we build out this valuable resource for information."
When using the updated Bing.com/covid tracker, users can now hit the location button and, after giving permission, let the map show localized data including county level for those in the United States. That feature also percolates local news information on the topic for users to keep abreast of what is happing in their town or location.
Trend charts are also new. Those charts reveal confirmed and fatal cases in your immediate area in addition to the actual numbers of cases that are active, recovered, and fatal.
The Bing.com/covid tracker is available on desktop web browsers (where you can install it as a web app) and on mobile as well.
Compared the excellent Johns Hopkins one which I covered earlier, this is lighter on system resources, smoother to run, and provides localized Bing news results to expand upon the information making it perhaps a better choice for some.
