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Windows Phone Bing barcode scanning now available in select European countries

Windows Phone Bing barcode scanning now available in select European countries

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Bing Vision now available fully in select European countries for Windows Phone users.

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Bing Vision
Bing Vision

Microsoft's Bing Vision service for Windows Phone has started to roll out fully in additional markets. Bing Vision, built-in to Microsoft's Mango update, lets Windows Phone users scan a variety of products to find information, reviews and prices online. Most of the features were previously restricted to the US only, leaving just QR and tag scanning for international markets, but an expansion to some European countries brings barcode, book, CD, and DVD scanning thanks to Microsoft's Ciao service.

Ciao, purchased by Microsoft in 2008, operates online-shopping portals in France, UK, Spain, Germany, The Netherlands, Italy and Sweden, and Bing Vision is now available in all of these countries. Bing Vision was originally introduced as built-in functionality to quickly compare retail and online prices, replacing the need for additional applications like RedLaser. Microsoft quietly enabled the additional markets this week so let us know if you spot the new scanning features in other European countries where Ciao isn't available.