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Microsoft Gives Bing A Touch-Phone Makeover

Most of Microsoft’s efforts since the relaunch of its search engine as Bing have been on the PC side—but the company now seems to be getting around to improving its mobile search experience significantly as well.

In a blog post Friday, Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) said it had unveiled a version of Bing optimized for touch phones, including the iPhone, T-Mobile G1, Verizon (NYSE: VZ) Imagio, and Samsung Omnia. (Support for additional devices is coming). I’ve been playing with the new version on my iPhone and the main difference between it and the default Google (NSDQ: GOOG) search I use most often is that I can click anywhere on an entry to get to a site rather than just the blue headline link. There’s also a new movies vertical, which lets you sift through current movies by clicking on images of movie posters.

The standard mobile Bing version also has some new features, including real-time updates on football games and flights. None of this, though, seems game-changing enough to move Microsoft’s paltry mobile search share very much, especially when compared to the impact of the company’s deal to become the default search provider on Verizon phones.

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Posted In: Mobile, Search, Companies, Microsoft

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