Skip to main content

Bing Campaign Landscape helps voters make sense of a crazy political season

bing u s election campaign landscape header
Image used with permission by copyright holder
If you’re old enough to have lived through a few U.S. national election cycles, then you’re likely aware that this election season is different than most. The two candidates, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, are engaged in an unusually high level of personal attacks, and keeping up with the issues and predicting a winner is particularly challenging.

Microsoft’s Bing search engine has been working overtime to keep its users informed and updated, often in real time, and the team is releasing a new Campaign Landscape feature to make things even easier, according to a blog post this morning. The Campaign Landscape will be focused on keeping voters up to date on a number of specific data points as we head into the election on November 8.

Related: Google has its own election hub

First up are predictions for which candidates will win each state. The presidential race will be covered first, and Bing will be adding congressional forecasts in the near future along with a balance-of-power overview. State-by-state poll results will also be provided. As with everything in the Campaign Landscape, this information will be updated in real time.

bing-campaign-landscape-chance-of-winning
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Next is a map view of candidate spending on a state-by-state basis. Information will also be provided on the source and amounts of money raised by each candidate from key donors nationally, such as Super PACs and industry groups.

bing-campaign-landscape-campaign-spending
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Finally, voters will be able to compare their own choices with those of people who most resemble them. Bing will be providing demographic breakdowns on voter preferences, and laying everything out on a map to see how age and gender preferences vary on a state level.

Bing also provides a news hub on the elections experience homepage to help voters access trending news across a number of sources. The Bing team will be selecting stories from a diverse group of media outlets. If you’re looking for a place to live stream the final presidential debate, then you can search “presidential debate” for places to watch.

bing-campaign-landscape-latest-headlines
Image used with permission by copyright holder

While today’s political landscape is noteworthy for its unusually rancorous nature, voters do benefit from access to a host of different news sources that can help them dig up the information they need to make educated voting choices. The Bing Campaign Landscape is just one effort to help voters make sense of the data and the unending litany of trending news that can help inform — or confuse — their decisions.

Mark Coppock
Mark has been a geek since MS-DOS gave way to Windows and the PalmPilot was a thing. He’s translated his love for…
HTC just fixed a major shortcoming of standalone VR headsets
An upper body shot of a person wearing HTC VIive Ultimate Trackers with TrackStraps.

HTC Vive recently announced a new virtual reality tracker specifically designed for standalone VR headsets like the Vive XR Elite and Vive Focus 3. The VR division of this tech giant also makes base stations and motion-tracking hardware that's required for most PC VR headsets.

In VR, your head motion is detected by sensors in the headset while your hand position is captured by the controllers. What's missing is body tracking. That means the game or app has no way of knowing for certain where your feet and hips are. That's why trackers are needed.

Read more
There’s still time to get this HP 17-inch laptop for $260
A woman video chats with her friends on an HP Envy laptop.

Continuing from all the holiday sales excitement, HP still has a HP 17-inch laptop for $240 off bringing the price down to $260. Usually priced at $500, this is one of those laptop deals that's a great option for anyone seeking an inexpensive Windows-based laptop to take to class or similar. We're here to tell you a little more about it before you consider making your purchase. As a previous Cyber Monday deal, expect it to end pretty soon.

Why you should buy the HP 17-inch laptop
The HP 17-inch laptop keeps things simple. It has an AMD Athlon Gold 7220U processor along with 8GB of memory and 128GB of SSD storage. It won't rival the best laptops when it comes to performance, but it's well priced for what it offers. It also offers a hefty advantage for the price -- a 17-inch display. Said display has a HD+ resolution of 1600 x 900 while it also has 250 nits of brightness. While it might not be great for using in bright sunlight, it's a good call if you need more space to juggle your many windows.

Read more
One of the best laptop deals I saw on Black Friday is still available
The Dell XPS 13

Dell has continued to offer some fantastic laptop deals with $200 off the highly sought after Dell XPS 13 laptop. This particular model usually costs $799 but right now, you can buy it for $599 making it an unmissable deal. If you're keen to learn more, read on while we take you through everything or simply hit the button below to get straight to the listing.

Why you should buy the Dell XPS 13
The Dell XPS 13 is widely regarded as one of the best laptops around thanks to being affordable and well-built. This particular Dell XPS 13 has a 12th-generation Intel Core i5 processor, 8GB of memory and 256GB of SSD storage. It keeps things simple yet just right for working on the move or taking to class. There's also its gorgeous 13.4-inch full HD+ screen with 1920 x 1200 resolution, anti-glare properties, and 500 nits of brightness.

Read more