Bing for Schools

In an effort to gain market share, Bing will be offer its engine to schools devoid of many of the features you would not want children and teens to have access to, particularly in school.  Quoted directly from the article, Bing Offers Schools a Safe, Advertising-Free Search Experience,on Search Engine Watch, "the program is open to K-12 schools and will:

• Remove all advertising from search result pages.
• Filter out adult content.
• Use SafeSearch by default and remove the ability to change it.
• Offer additional content to enhance digital literacy skills."

Schools need to actively sign up to be part of the program, and although available details are limited, my guess is that in order to make the program worthwhile for Bing, once a part of the program, students will not be able to access other engines, such as Google.  After all, if students still had access to other engines, students may avoid Bing solely on the fact that their searches are limited.

If schools sign up, this could work out great for Bing.  Although it will probably negatively impact their revenue in short run, if Microsoft can successfully get their brand in front of young impressionable minds early in their search lifetimes, it could have huge payoffs down the road.

Of course I good see this backfiring on Bing, particularly among teenage boys, if it becomes known as the engine where searchers cannot get "good" results.