Bing Entertainment Unwrapped: Music, Movies, Games & TV

Per my previous post, Bing To Rollout Red Carpet In Hollywood Along With New Features, Danny Sullivan and I are liveblogging from Hollywood, where Bing is officially unveiling its new entertainment features. The official Bing blog has all the details about the new features in all aspects of entertainment: Music, Movies, TV listings and gaming […]

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Per my previous post, Bing To Rollout Red Carpet In Hollywood Along With New Features, Danny Sullivan and I are liveblogging from Hollywood, where Bing is officially unveiling its new entertainment features.

The official Bing blog has all the details about the new features in all aspects of entertainment: Music, Movies, TV listings and gaming information.

At the press event in LA, Microsoft senior vice president Yusuf Mehdi is running through live examples of what’s new in the entertainment vertical.

note: some of the following features are rolling out over the next several days.

Music – lyrics, song sampling, concert listings & tweets, oh my

For the Music area, he’s highlighting over 5 million FREE plays available, and pointing in particular to current R&B /hip-hop artist, DRAKE, who will be performing for the attendees at the launch event later tonite.

Key to the music vertical are instant lyric answers for top songs, upcoming concerts and venue information, and even Tweets (when verified accounts are available) by the popular artist. (Mehdi highlighted Demi Lovato for this one)  and of course, social sharing options are available.

From the official press release:

Bing lets you discover and sample more than 5 million songs and lyrics for free. Bing offers the most complete search results including songs, artists, albums, and hard-to-find lyrics. People can play songs in-line and purchase with one-click from iTunes, Amazon or Zune. Zune Pass subscribers can already stream unlimited full tracks from Zune.net, but now all subscribers can purchase any of the millions of pure MP3s from the Zune catalogue directly over the web from Zune.net – anytime, anywhere.

Movies

Taking the listings for local showings one step further, Bing Maps is now more integrated with listings, to help plan your evening of entertainment around movie show times, with local shopping and restaurant listings. In addition, you can get reactions from the social web.

From the official press release:

Bing helps people decide which movie to see with visual search, customer reviews, in-line movie trailers and highlight videos, one-click purchasing and more. Easily plan an evening out with integrated Bing Maps, which can help people find parking, local restaurants and other information.

Gaming

Perhaps one of the biggest elements in the Bing entertainment vertical is the addition of gaming features, which include “nearly 100 of the most popular casual games online safely from right within Bing,” and Bing boasts: “hosting the games inline means you can be sure they are actually games and not malware.”

Games Bubble Town

From the official press release:

Bing now helps the 175 million gamers in the US beat the game. Bing is the only search engine that offers more than 35,000 aggregated reviews, cheats, and walkthroughs for games. And, Bing makes it easy to play nearly 100 top casual games in-line, like Bejewled, Hexix, and Bubble Town, without worrying about registering, getting spyware, or being overloaded with ads.

TV

Enhanced cable and satellite provider listings for television shows, both current hits (Glee and past series, such as the original A-Team were referenced by Mehdi) are given top billing in SERPs:

TV Gossip Girl SERP

From the official press release:

Bing TV: People can now access one of the largest catalogs of videos on the Web, from partners like Hulu, Viacom, CBS and more – all in one place. Bing offers more than 1,500 shows and 20,000 full TV episodes, TV listings, and easy access to episodes, reviews, images, and more. People can find their favorite show in HD, check out user reviews and invite friends to watch using Facebook, Twitter, or other social tools.


Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.


About the author

Elisabeth Osmeloski
Contributor
Elisabeth Osmeloski was Director of Audience Development for Search Engine Land and MarTech. She was responsible for increasing readership through owned, earned and paid media channels. In addition, she assists in programming sessions at Third Door Media's Search Marketing Expo conference series and manages speaking engagements for editorial staff. Follow her on Twitter @elisabethos.

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