Bing has launched a new intelligent search feature which provides the exact piece of code a developer is looking for.
The code snippet will appear right on the search results page itself, which means users will not have to skim through long threads and articles to find the one thing they’re looking for.
Bing calls this new feature a “Code Sample Answer” and says it’s designed to help save developers’ time.
“Many of us are developers too, and we thought: what if Bing were intelligent enough to do this for us? What if it could save users’ time by automatically finding the exact piece of code containing the answer to the question? That is how Code Sample Answer was born.”
Code Sample Answer is live on Bing as of today, and users can see it in action with a query like “convert case using a function in R.”
The above query will return a search result like the one below:
In order to deliver a Code Sample Answer, Bing utilizes a combination of natural language processing technology and language agnostic code understanding capabilities.
A Code Sample Answer will trigger only when Bing intelligently detects the coding intent with high confidence.
“To achieve this level of precision for query intent detection Bing’s natural language processing pipelines for developers leverages patterns found in training data from developer queries collected over the years containing commonly used terms and text structure typical for coding queries. The system also leverages a multitude of click signals to improve the precision even further.”
The functionality of Code Sample Answer is not limited to programming languages, as it also covers other tools used by developers. For example, a Code Sample Answer can be triggered when searching for git commands and their syntax.
Bing says it will enhance the coverage of Code Sample Answer as it receives more signals from web searches and feedback from developers.
