Microsoft’s search site is no longer just a “decision engine.” It’s growing up and now it can play music, movies, and games without ever sending users to an external Web site.
The software giant has signed onto a whole bunch of deals with record labels, TV networks, movie studios, and casual game providers to let users access content they’re searching for – without ever leaving the “comfort” of Bing.com.
Even online video sites like Hulu are letting Microsoft access their content without requiring them to redirect users away from the search engine.
Additionally, when users search for a song title, Bing will bring up a result from Microsoft’s “Zune Pass” service, allowing them to stream the song for free, once. It will then prompt them to sign up for the subscription music service, which costs $15 per month.
Bing has become a success for Microsoft as it has taken the company’s extremely fledgling search engine presence into an upswing. Although it has faced a big challenge in making any sort of dent against Google, its search engine market share has been rising slowly over the past several months.
In addition to the embedded content, Bing has also added new features for entertainment-related searches, such as automatically bringing up entire song lyrics or artist profiles.
