Reading about Bing’s new Bing & Ping feature, I had one of those ‘duh, why didn’t they think of this earlier?’ moments. But, then again, I didn’t think of it either.
What is Bing & Ping? Simply, the addition of Twitter and Facebook sharing icons beneath all (or at least most) search results that allow a searcher to quickly redistribute a search result. Just like you see at the bottom of this post, and most well made blogs. It will look like this:
I like it. Obviously, bookmarking sites will be begging to be included as well. Facebook and Twitter seem to be the only social sites that have survived the markets test of longevity (relative here), buzz (both get tons), and user adoption (the obvious winners so far). Bing can hence, confidently add these two icons to their search. I can see both Delicious and StumbleUpon making their case to Bing- claiming to be the winner in their social space. Maybe when we have a declared winner, Bing will expand their share buttons.
I predict this is just the beginning of the blend between search and social sites- stay tuned, they will blend more and more, I’m convinced. In the meantime, we’ll wait for the official launch of Bing & Ping.
Follow Microsoft’s Bing & Ping updates.