Bing and Ping

Bing, are you a fan? If you aren't a fan then you might have some incentive to become one, on Facebook that is. If you do decide to 'fan up' on Facebook then you'll be privvy to Bing's latest project - 'Bing and Ping'.

What is 'Bing and Ping' you ask; well I'd be happy to explain. Microsoft has this crazy notion that social media and search can fuse together and work off each other. Is it crazy enough to work though? Ok, actually it isn't crazy and I have to say it's pretty savvy of the big house of M to give it a shot.

So, how it works is that when you search for something on Bing you'll be provided an option to share your results with others. On their community Blog, football and flights are used as an example. So, if you're searching for a flight time and want others to know when you're leaving you can share it through Bing's search results. Right now they're showing four options, Facebook, Twitter, Email, and a simple copy.

I think that the idea for this is novel in concept. Bing can only stand to gain from this in my mind. First, you're in better graces with two of the most popular websites on the internet. Secondly, you're in a way virally marketing the Bing name. If one person shares something, then that person will link to someone else. Before you know it people are binging and pinging all over the place.

The one problem that I have with this idea is the name. Bing and Ping? Do we really need it to rhyme? What happens when they add more features like having the ability of a friend to reply back, will it be a 'zing'? Or if you provide the ability to text message a search result, 'ring'? Before you know it you've got yourself a rap song: Just got on Bing, gave my friend a ping, just hit me back with a zing, figured I'd give my other boy a ring. :) Yea, let's not do that.