The Bing challenge: with iOS 7 and Windows 8.1, search could be Microsoft's new platform

Earlier this year, the head of Microsoft's search team, Qi Lu, unveiled a new approach for Bing: the concept of a broad search platform that could feed into Microsoft's own products and third-party offerings. It seemed ambitious, and certainly felt like other unrealized promises to beat Google at its own game, but Microsoft is deadly serious and it now has some proof of its plans in iOS 7 and Windows 8.1. Starting last week, a preview version of Windows 8.1 was made available, and it contains so...