Microsoft unveils ad-free Bing search for schools

Microsoft said Monday it would offer an advertising-free version of its Bing search engine for schools, which also includes extra privacy and filtering of adult content.

"Bing For Schools will offer schools in the US the option to tailor the Bing experience for (elementary and secondary) students by removing all advertisements from search results, enhancing privacy protections and the filtering of adult content, and adding specialized learning features to enhance digital literacy," Microsoft's Matt Wallaert said in a blog post.

"The program is completely voluntary: schools have the choice of participating or keeping the normal Bing experience. For those that opt-in, Bing will enable the experience across all searches from within the school's network on Bing.com, without any need for special software."

Wallaert said Bing already offers the ability to filter out adult content but the new services "will automatically default to the strict setting and remove kids ability to change it."

© 2013 AFP