“The move marks a major step towards solving app discoverability in the desktop browser. The feature will be rolled out to all members of the Conduit network over the next few weeks,” a spokesperson for Conduit tells WebProNews. “For example, when searching for ‘Groupon app,’ Bing returns organic and sponsored links to the Groupon site, as well as the official Groupon App powered by Conduit. Results will appear based on relevancy.”

Conduit entered a partnership with Microsoft back in December. As a result, Conduit publishers can provide their customers direct access to Bing. Now, the deal appears to be more beneficial to Conduit app publishers as well.

“Our relationship with Microsoft has enabled our publishers to offer an even greater experience to their customers and will add more fuel to the already impressive growth of Conduit’s massive network,” said Conduit President Adam Boyden. “The inclusion of Conduit-powered apps in Bing not only represents a step forward in app discoverability, but also an opportunity for any publisher who monetizes via content, traffic or engaging their users.”

“The inclusion of Conduit-powered apps in Bing search results is one more way that we are providing people with information to help make their everyday lives easier,” said Chris Nelson, Sr. Director, Strategic Partnerships for Bing.

Yesterday, Bing announced some new Action Buttons in search results, which allow users to take part in specific tasks on sites right from the search results page. This includes things like downloading software, renting a car, and checking a flight status.

Ronen Shilo, Conduit’s founder and CEO, wrote this morning on the corporate blog, "Today I’d like to announce the next step in our journey – we have entered into a partnership with Microsoft which we believe will significantly improve our offering to publishers, accelerating the growth of Conduit’s massive network."

Shilo then continued, "Both companies are highly driven by improving the user experience, and as such, see a strong alignment in our long-term strategies and are looking forward to a mutually successful partnership."

This counts as a significant achievement for Bing, even setting aside the symbolic replacing-Google angle.  That’s because Conduit’s connections with publishers put it in touch with around 200 million individuals, meaning the deal should raise Bing’s profile quite a bit.

Then, if all goes well, other companies might choose to follow Conduit’s lead.

Unfortunately, the exact terms of the Bing-Conduit arrangement haven’t been disclosed, so details related to timeframes and financial components remain hazy.

Hat tip goes to Kara Swisher.

The Groupon Browser App alerts users no matter where they are online, when new deals are available. Using location-based targeting, the app works directly in the browser and shows users “Today’s Deal.” The app allows users to share deals with others via email, and social networks such as Twitter and Facebook.

“Groupon offers amazing deals and we want to put them in front of consumers any way we can,” said Sean Smyth, VP of Business Development, Groupon.

“Our first browser app complements existing marketing tools and opens the door to reach consumers in a whole new way. Conduit’s massive distribution channel will expose Groupon to millions of new consumers around the world.”

The Groupon Browser App is available in the Conduit App Marketplace. The app is available to all 260,000 web publishers and users in the Conduit Network. The app is compatible with Google Chrome, Safari, Firefox and Internet Explorer.

The company has announced that its network has grown to over 250,000 app publishers & 170 million users, with adoption of apps by end-users increasing 233% between last July and last month.

"While most of the buzz in the media is about mobile apps, the reality of the situation is that 118 million more people use Conduit-powered apps than iPhone and Droid apps combined," says Conduit president Adam Boyden. "In fact, the Conduit Network of app publishers and users is so large that we are able to identify unique trends about web app usage."

Some of these trends? According to Conduit:

- 60 million end users consume apps from the Conduit App Marketplace every day.

- Since August of 2009, the number of web publishers that have more than one million users has grown from 1 to more than 40

- Over 8 million people got the Coke Zero-Avatar App last December in the first 10 days after launch. After the success of that app, digital agency Mediatronica built another and the recently launched Coke Zero SWAT App, already has 2.5 million users.

- The Pitsi mini-game app generated more than 66 million engagements during the first 10 weeks of 2010.

"Conduit is doing for web apps, what iPhone did for mobile apps and in a bigger market – the browser," says Boyden.

"The last year has been phenomenal for Conduit not only because we have worked with some of the best brands in the world, but also, more importantly because we have leveled the playing field for small publishers and developers to give them exposure and distribution comparable to huge companies," he adds.

According to Conduit, entertainment apps are the largest segment (no surprise there), but news apps and social media apps are also quite popular. In fact, the social media category has been the fastest growing one of the past year.

The app network serves apps with content from brands like Amazon, Coke Zero, eBay, Facebook, Fox News, Hulu, Skype, YouTube, and Zynga, to name a few.

This week, Google acquired app developer Labpixies. App platform provider Conduit (full disclosure: they do advertise with us), who is a partner of Labpixies, is facilitating a great deal of app creation and engagement itself. WebProNews spoke with President Adam Boyden, who discussed the power of marketing with apps the impact Google’s acquisition of Labpixies could have on the industry.

"Labpixies is a great company with fantastic technology," says Boyden. "They are a Conduit partner and their apps are in the Conduit App Marketplace. We are excited to continue our work with them and distribute their apps to our network of more than 220,000 web publishers and 100 million users."

"We see Google’s acquisition of Labpixies as validation for and proof of the massive marketing and revenue opportunity that browser apps represent for businesses of all sizes.  More than 19 new users join our network every second, adding apps to their browsers."

When he says all sizes, he means it. The company’s network includes hundreds of large brands like MLB, Travelocity, Fox News, Time Warner Cable, and the NHL. However, it’s mostly comprised of thousands of smaller entities.

"These small publishers share their content with millions of users via the Conduit App Marketplace and many get huge results – much larger than they could achieve with their own marketing efforts," says Boyden. "For example, Pitsi, a virtual pet mini-game that can be played from the chrome of the browser, was downloaded by more than 5 million users and those users interacted with the game more than 66,000,000 times in the first ten weeks of the year."

Conduit actually announced yesterday that it is driving 2.14 billion user activities and brand interactions a month.

Both Coca-Cola (through their partner Mediatronica) and eBay have created apps using the Conduit Platform. Mediatronica created the Coke Zero/Avatar App to promote their sponsorship of the Avatar movie and increase engagement with fans. Twenty-four hours after the first activation, the app was exposed to a million users in the Conduit Network. Ten days later the campaign had reached 8 million people in over 30 countries and generated nearly a million minutes of total viewing/engagement time. The eBay App in the Conduit App Marketplace generated more than a million active users in less than 3 weeks after launch, according to Boyden.

Never heard of Conduit? It may fly a bit below the radar, but the company describes itself as a “trusted solution for major brands like Greenpeace, REMAX, Fox Carolina TV, and over 125,000 other website publishers around the world.” And associating with search engine giant Google may make the company’s low profile a thing of the past.

Ronen Shilo, the CEO of Conduit, was predictably pleased about the deal. He spoke briefly about his company’s relationship with Google in an official statement, saying, “Google is a clear leader in search and we are delighted to be able to incorporate this established and proven tool into our platform.”

A current customer – Steve Christian, the Internet sales director at FOX Carolina TV – thinks that users will benefit. “Conduit’s decision to offer Google search further enhances this experience so our viewers can access their favorite search engine directly via the Fox Carolina Newsbar.”

Michael Arrington gave the Google-Conduit proceedings his proverbial stamp of approval, as well. “If you have a community, this is a tool you may want to offer,” he wrote. Arrington also noted that Yozma, “an Israeli venture firm,” recently gave its support to Conduit in the form of $2 million in funding.

Conduit’s fortunes certainly seem to be on the rise (not that the company was doing poorly beforehand); it’ll be interesting to see what effect the Google deal has in the long term.

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Doug is a staff writer for WebProNews. Visit WebProNews for the latest eBusiness news.