Bing announced the roll out of Adaptive Search on Wednesday, a feature that customizes results based on users' search history and places a premium on relevant content.

To provide users with more accurate search results, Bing’s Stefan Weitz announced the development of Adaptive Search at SMX East on Wednesday. The company also released a related blog post on the feature, and it seems Adaptive Search could help site content reach the right audience when it’s embedded with keywords that have multiple meanings.

According to Bing, it has been working to refine search results by factoring geolocation data and a user’s website history into results. The next logical step for Bing was to include a user’s search history in the ranking of web pages, which led them to Adaptive Search.

Essentially, the algorithm processes previous search terms to ensure that results are tailored specifically for the user. In its blog, Bing cited the example of the term “Australia,” which could have any number of meanings in a search context. Users that have previously searched for movie titles are more likely to see a link regarding the film, along with general information about the country. On the other hand, those planning a vacation would see more content about the travel destination Australia.

Adaptive Search might help marketers gain more visibility for keywords that have multiple meanings. The goal, according to Bing, is to provide people with customized search results featuring relevant content and improve overall satisfaction.

The feature is optional, and users can turn Adaptive Search off easily. It will be rolling out throughout the U.S. and, as Stefan Weitz said at SMX East, it considers queries from the past 28 days and is cookie based.

Google’s dominance over search is still quite apparent, and the company has its own previous query feature. However, Adaptive Search may gain value in marketers’ minds as Brafton reported on Monday that Bing-powered search accounts for more than 28 percent of search activity.

Joe Meloni is Brafton's former Executive News and Content Writer. He studied journalism at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and has written for a number of print and web-based publications.