Microsoft has announced they are altering search results on Bing in an effort to better accommodate mobile users, echoing what Google did several weeks ago.
The changes were announced yesterday and the site will now prioritise websites who are developed with mobile devices in mind. Sites that display well on smaller screens will now feature a ‘mobile friendly’ tag when they appear in search results.
The algorithm used in Bing considers which websites have large navigational elements with good amounts of spacing and those which don’t require excessive zooming and horizontal scrolling. It also checks for content incompatible with mobile browsers, such as Flash Player.
Microsoft stressed that this doesn’t necessarily mean that all results will be mobile friendly, as relevant results will still take precedent in some cases. “You can always expect to see the most relevant results for a search query ranked higher, even if some of them are not mobile friendly,” Microsoft said.
Microsoft plans to roll out the changes in the coming months.