ICC T20 World Cup 2016: Microsoft's Bing adds cricket oriented search, in-game prediction features

The ICC T20 World Cup matches have kicked off and the competition is getting fierce as the battle for spots intensifies this week. If you are planning to keep a tab on the action, Microsoft's Bing search engine has rolled out a new set of cricket-oriented features to "give cricket lovers an enriched search experience" and keep you posted on the unpredictable games as the World Cup progresses.

Simply search for "Cricket World Cup" on the Bing homepage and a wide range of cricket content will pop up including match predictions, standings, stats, news, polls, previews and more. The search engine also provides information about the history of cricket and cricketing records. To eliminate the need to switch between different websites to get your daily fill of cricket information and updates, Bing will offer all the information one needs for the games in one place with in-depth features that include ball-by-ball updates, match schedules, results and top player statistics.

"Over the past few months, we have been working to enrich Cricket search experiences to show more match details," Sundar Srinivasan, general manager of Bing Search, said in a statement. "We anticipate our unique offerings such as Bing Predicts and quiz will make this T20 Cricket season much more exciting and engaging for the fans."

The intuitive Bing Predicts feature, which has been pretty accurate so far in predicting the Super Tuesday results, the winner of the Super Bowl, March Madness and even Leonardo Dicaprio's win at the Oscars, is expected to do the same for the World Cup as well. The Bing Predicts feature will make in-match predictions and update the winners every five overs of the game.

In 2015, 83% of the predictions made by the feature for the World Cup were accurate.

Cortana will also keep all of its users on Windows 10 updated about the ongoing matches as well. Apparently a "big fan of Sachin Tendulkar herself," the Microsoft personal assistant will update you about your favourite team and check the entire tournament schedule. Just ask her about the latest "Cricket scores." She can also test your knowledge about the game with a quick quiz session simply by saying "give me a cricket challenge."

Bing has also added a daily cricket quiz to test users' skills and a daily poll to voice your thoughts. If you feel like your scores are up to scratch, you can share your scorecard via Facebook and Twitter, and challenge your friends or family to do the same.

Bing Predicts has also been integrated with UC Browser's UC Cricket, a cricket content aggregation platform, to provide cricket data, stats and its almost-accurate analytical service.

Click here to follow IBTimes UK's coverage of the T20 World Cup