Microsoft updates Bing with social enhancements

Microsoft has added several social enhancements to its Bing search engine in an effort to close the gap on market leader Google in the highly competitive search market.

Firstly, the firm is now allowing real-time social data to be displayed in news results.

"Now alongside the latest headlines on Bing News, you will find a real-time feed with the latest updates from Twitter highlighting hot news topics. Search for a news item and immediately see what people are tweeting on the topic," wrote Bing senior programme manager Betsy Aoki.

"Bing News now lets you compare and assess authoritative news analysis alongside real-time citizen journalists so you can decide which content sources you want to use."

Bing users signed into Facebook will also now be able to share their favourite movies, actors, bands and TV shows directly to their Facebook profiles.

By clicking on the 'overview tab', they will be presented with a ‘What's on your mind?' box where they can post their thoughts on the searched-for content directly into Facebook.

The updates, which for now are available only in the US but coming soon to other geographies, come just days after Microsoft announced enhancements to its Bing for mobile offering.

These included leisure features such as shopping tools, easier application store searching and real-time travel information which displays estimated journey times based on walking, transport and traffic information.

Microsoft has also tried to differentiate in the market by reportedly planning to launch an HTML5 preview version of the browser which will feature instant search and the ability to run animations and slideshows of any image search results a user generates.

Earlier in March Bing passed Yahoo in terms of global search queries, hitting 4.37 per cent compared to 3.97 per cent. However, it is still a long way behind market leader Google which has a whopping 89.94 per cent share of all searches.