Microsoft to add Bing Ping thing

Jake Widman
Saturday, 05 September 2009 01:09

Your IT - Home IT

Microsoft's new search engine will be getting a social media twist when the new Bing & Ping service launches. Bing & Ping will let users immediately share their search results via e-mail, Facebook, and Twitter. 

In a post on the Bing Community search blog, Nicholas Kerr of the Bing team writes that "we at the Bing team are firm believers in the idea that the only thing better than searching with Bing is sharing what you’ve found with your friends."

Bing & Ping will put a sharing bar under some search results with icons for Twitter, Facebook, and Email so that you can post the results to those services or send them to someone else.

One example offered is of taunting a friend by tweeting his favorite sports team's most recent loss.

Other, perhaps more useful example are sharing flight status with someone you're going on a trip with, or sharing local movie times with people you're trying to coordinate an evening out with.

While the service works with Facebook and Twitter, no mention is made of Windows Live -- except in the comments to the blog post, where several respondents ask for that capability.

Bing & Ping will be rolled out first to people who sign up for the preview program. Signups can be through the Bing Facebook page or at the Preview signup page .

You will need a Windows Live ID to participate in the preview.