Microsoft completed the Bing in the Classroom program testing and announced the ad-free search engine for eligible students across all schools in the U.S.
Microsoft, the world's largest software company, announced a new phase for its Bing in the Classroom program, which brings the ad-free safe search engine to students from Kindergarten to class 12 in all public and private schools in the U.S. The software giant completed the pilot stage of the program, formerly known as Bing for Schools, on Wednesday after testing it in five of the largest U.S. public school districts earlier this year.
Bing in the Classroom is a free program that promises a safer and ad-free web search to all students across the United States. Students using Microsoft's search engine from within the school network will be strictly refrained from accessing adult content, as the software giant automatically adds necessary filters. Additionally, the web searches will not be used for targeted advertisement, which is a wide source of revenue for any Internet company such as Microsoft itself.
But has the effort applied towards the program paid off? Certainly yes! Microsoft said Bing in the Classroom has grown to add hundreds of districts covering more than 4.5 million kids in over 5,000 schools. The search engine served more than 35 million ad-free queries during this school year.
According to CNET, Microsoft's annual estimation of ads that are shown to students exceeds 15 billion every year. Students get a mixture of ads from web sites, businesses and online resources while searching for a query. The ad-free Bing service fixes that and offers straight-forward answers to students' queries.
With the new program in place, Microsoft is slowly winning the hearts of parents and teachers.
"I teach kindergarten through fifth-grade media classes, and as soon as I started using Bing in the Classroom, I noticed my kids being more attentive and focused in class," Lynda Shipley, media specialist, Bremerton School District in Washington, said in astatement. "We all know advertisements can be distracting, and with Bing in the Classroom I don't have to worry about inappropriate content getting in the way of the lesson plan or students' research."
To get free access to ad-free search, private and public sector schools can register at Bing website and be a part of the Bing in the Classroom program in a matter of days. To further juice up the campaign, Microsoft is giving away a first-generation Surface tablet computer to schools where community members sign in and use the standard ad-supported version of Bing outside the school. The software giant is offering credits under the Bing Rewards program and any school with 30,000 credits can win a Surface with Type Cover.
Microsoft said about 9,000 people donated over 2 million Rewards credits to almost 8,000 different schools during this school year.
"We created Bing in the Classroom because we believe students deserve a search environment tailored for learning. Classrooms should be ad-free, and that should be as true online as it is offline," Matt Wallaert, creator of Bing in the Classroom, Microsoft, said in a press release.
