Microsoft Live Search Announced for BlackBerry

After unveiling the upcoming release of a MySpace application for its BlackBerry smartphones, the Canada-based Research in Motion has also announced a new collaboration with the giant Microsoft, which will result in bringing the Redmond company's Live Search engine to BlackBerry handsets. 

Live Search will be integrated with the BlackBerry web browser as well as with BlackBerry Maps, this allowing users to benefit from the capabilities of Microsoft's search engine. With Live Search on BlackBerry, all the Web info will be closer to them, regardless of what they’re looking for: the latest news, images, weather forecasts and so on. Also, thanks to the integration with BlackBerry Maps, Live Search will enable users to easily find various locations and points of interest.

Talking about the partnership with Microsoft, Mark Guibert, vice president of corporate marketing at Research In Motion, said, "As the BlackBerry platform continues to evolve and broaden its appeal to mobile users, RIM looks to answer our customers’ needs with a broad range of high-value solutions optimized for use with BlackBerry smartphones. Offering Live Search on BlackBerry smartphones extends choice for our customers and allows users to conveniently and quickly search the Internet when they are mobile."

Brian Arbogast, corporate vice president of the Mobile Services Organization at Microsoft, also stated, "This joint endeavor with RIM is a strategic indicator of our increased focus on securing broad-scale distribution for Live Search. Microsoft is committed to extending our services across mobile platforms and we are very pleased to be joining forces with RIM to help bring Live Search to millions of BlackBerry users worldwide."

No word yet on the exact availability date of Live Search for BlackBerry, but RIM says users should be able to enjoy it sometime later this year, when the service will come with multiple-language support.

Bottom line: I believe it would be cool if RIM and Microsoft came up with a brand new name for the future BlackBerry search engine – something like BerryLive Search, perhaps. But that's just a clumsy suggestion.