Introducing Bing & Ping

What if Bing could be more than search, and more than a decision engine? What if the successor of Live Search could be an excellent place to start getting in touch with friends, and a catalyst for sharing the information returned to queries? This is precisely what Microsoft aims to do with Bing & Ping. Details are scarce at this point in time, but the Redmond-based company is apparently building a bridge between its search/decision engine and major social networks across the Internet. Bing & Ping is about making searches and query results a social experience rather than an individual action.

“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. That’s why we’ve been working on a potential new feature for Bing that does just that in a couple of clicks, which we call Bing & Ping,” revealed Nicholas Kerr, from the Bing team.

Essentially, Bing & Ping is a new feature that Microsoft is currently cooking for Bing. Bing & Ping will appear at the bottom of search results, and will allow end users to seamlessly share information returned by the search/decision engine with friends, via Facebook, Twitter, and through email. Curiously enough, Microsoft doesn’t show any plans to integrate Bing & Ping with Windows Live, at least for the time being, but I am more than sure that this oversight will be corrected.

Bing & Ping is not available for testing just yet. Microsoft only delivered a taste of the feature in the screenshots included with this article. However, the software giant is already inviting potential testers to express their interest in giving Bing & Ping a try.

“If you’re interested in previewing this feature, be sure to become a fan of our Facebook page. We’ll be sending a special invitation to our fans to preview Bing and Ping. Check it out and let us know what you think, if you like it and how we can make it better,” Kerr added.