At Bing, we’re always looking for ways to improve your experience. And the search for cute—be it for bunnies, kittens, teacup pigs, or hedgehogs—is no different. That’s why today Bing is proud to announce its partnership with the Cute Cloud—a cloud-based data store created by Microsoft Research (MSR) to host the web’s massive stock of cute images and videos, from portraits of cherub-cheeked toddlers and bespoke pets to GIFs featuring panicked squirrels and sleepy puppies.
And you can search the Cute Cloud only with Bing.
“The Cute Cloud is really a sugar-bowl of cuteness, stored remotely in the cloud, and searched with the precision that only Bing can deliver,” says Derrick Connell, Corporate Vice President of Bing. Connell adds, “Our algorithms can mine the web precisely for the two key indices of cute: eye-to-head-size ratio and, of course, cuddle density. That means we’re now able to deliver adorable media at scale while featuring the best of cute on the Bing homepage, today and every day.”
User appetite for locating cute imagery on the web is seemingly infinite. To better understand those cute urges, Bing data scientists studied and graphed search data. The result was a fractal image with a strong resemblance to the whorl of an itty-bitty kitten nose. Not surprisingly, these juvenile feline data visualizations directly correspond to our most popular cute animal searches:
Using unbiased web-aggregated data and mathematical models derived from Pavlovian studies of cute-endorphin causation, Bing Predicts has forecasted for 2015 that, while cats will continue their reign as the most searched-for cute creatures, “panda dogs” may soon usurp their position, with “agility pigs” not far behind.
Here’s the breakdown:
Even Cortana is a fan of the Cute Cloud. Just ask her “What’s up?”
The search for cute
The Cute Cloud developed as the result of research spearheaded by Harry Shum, Executive Vice President of Technology and Research at MSR. Shum and his team of scientists observed extraordinary search volume around queries for “cute.” In fact, it was the challenge of bringing high-quality cute to the cloud that brought Shum to MSR. “We’re putting the brightest minds on one of the biggest problems in search—how to make the search for cute easier, faster, and more fun,” adds Shum.
What’s more, the Cute Cloud aligns with Microsoft’s hybrid cloud strategy. Scott Guthrie, EVP of Cloud and Enterprise, envisions a world where the enterprise can host their version of the Cute Cloud across private, public and hybrid clouds.
“80% of the Fortune 500 are on Microsoft’s Cloud. Imagine if each of them had the ability to host employees’ cute pet photos in the own Cute Clouds that deliver friction-free deployment, support high-throughput applications across private and public clouds and can scale their data tier up or across thousands of databases – or cute images.”
“If your business isn’t serious about cute,” warns Guthrie, “it should be.”
Today Microsoft takes a bold step to get serious about cute. Come search the Cute Cloud.
– The Bing team