Microsoft announced that it is making its Bing Pulse polling platform available to the public today. Used mostly by news outlets in the past to gather real-time polling data from select groups, the Pulse 2.0 beta will see it extend its polling features to organizations and broadcasters on a wider basis.
Though it may not be readily obvious, Bing Pulse has already gained quite a bit of traction with various broadcasters and organizations. According to Bing:
Over the past two years, Bing Pulse has enabled massive real-time viewer polling and feedback for a range of broadcasters and organizations, managing 35 million votes for events ranging from small auditorium conversations hosted by the Clinton Global Initiative to two of President Obama's State of the Union addresses on Fox News. Most recently, Bing Pulse was adopted by CBS News for its program on the 50th anniversary of the US Civil Rights Act and was integrated into CNN's election coverage. MSNBC launched its Great Debates series built around Bing Pulse's audience engagement.
Bing Pulse 2.0 will now be available to a more public base, with Microsoft saying that it will be free for an undisclosed portion of the beta. According to Bing's blog post, this is sure to be a boon to anyone looking to gather valuable data from their audience:
Participants can make their voices heard, and make more informed decisions about the content they're viewing by understanding others' reactions to events unfolding in real-time. Event producers keep their audiences more deeply engaged, and can use audience sentiment to deliver content that best meets their needs. Bing Pulse 2.0's self-serve technology enables event producers and organizers to bring these benefits to participants at events of any size – from 10 people at a nonprofit meeting to 5,000 people gathered in a Vegas ballroom to millions watching a nationally-broadcast show.
Source: Bing Blog
