It’s a busy day at Bing (Microsoft) HQ. We posted this A.M. about changes to Bing Maps. While some of the change enhance the service we’re going to miss the easy, one-click access to create direct links to specific spots on maps or images including Bing’s wonderful “Bird’s Eye” imagery. Oh well. Bing Maps are still impressive.

This afternoon more new/updated from Bing.

Bing Video is MSN Video meeting Bing Search. You can find Bing Video here (it’s also accessible via a link on Bing.com). The database is searchable. Remember, you’ll be searching metadata and not the transcript of the program. The home page also includes content from several video categories. For example, you might see “most watched video.”

In the left column, you can begin your search by narrowing (without entering any search terms) to tv shows, music, most watched, news, and sports.

Bing Video continues to offer the very cool and very useful preview feature where you simply place your cursor on top of the video thumbnail and several seconds of the video plays. No clicks required.

A search results page allows you to limit your results by length, screen type, resolution, and source. Look for these options in the far left column. If available, you’ll also find related videos here. Finally, like you see elsewhere on Bing, links to other Bing services (based on your search terms) are listed here.

If you look at the source list, Bing Video is aggregating content from:
+ MSN
+ AOL Video
+ MTV
+ Hulu
+ ESPN
+ YouTube
+ MySpace
and other sources like the USA Today.

From the blog post we learn:
+ At the present time Bing Video contains over 900 television shows
+ Sharing video has been made easier
+ An option with some videos to “dim the lights” to make viewing the content easier.

One thing we would like to know is how much content Bing is getting from their content sources? In other words, do the have the full hulu catalog? Every YouTube video? If they only offer limited content, who makes the call as to what is and is not included.

Source: Bing Blog.

See Also: For a Comprehensive Database of Television Shows Available on the Web, Take a Look at Clicker. It’s a private beta but it’s worth your time to register.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 10th, 2009 and is filed under Multimedia Search, Search News, Search Tools. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.