You might be familiar with the profile thumbnails which appear alongside articles on Google Search results. In a similar nod to authorship, Bing will also feature the writer, author, or journalist behind a story on its social sidebar. The feature will be seen only for searches in the U.S. locale presently.

The author thumbs will appear in the “People Who Know” section in the Bing sidebar, depending on the search result of your query. Readers can browse to this section and hover over their names to learn more about them, see their top articles related to your query, or link to their Twitter page.

The sidebar shows a one-line bio which should read as – writes for. Clicking on the ‘See all articles’ link will showcase their work. Unlike Google, the authors are carefully selected by Bing.

The move to feature authors along with other related people on the Social Sidebar is most definitely an attempt to deepen the search experience. Bing says –

Much of the information we consume and search for relates to current events, and the most recent and accurate information often comes from news articles.  Behind every article is a journalist, writer or author who has worked hard to research and report on a story. These professionals are experts in their fields, sharing the latest news, developing events and information out with the greater world.

The above statement on their blog and a related news report mentions that Bing has carefully selected the authors and is presently maintaining an ever growing index of 45,000 authors.

Source: Bing Blog