Microsoft announced that beginning December 6, and in the months ahead, it will be rolling out Bing Voice Search on Xbox. This will enable users to find content across Netflix, Hulu Plus, Comcast Xfinity on Demand ,HBO Go, Zune, and other programs on Xbox Live.
Actually, this is just one of many new features coming to Xbox. The company made a huge “future of TV” announcement for the Xbox 360. This includes a group of new apps aimed at boosting the entertainment potential of the console. It includes a lot of television and video related content. More on that here.
“Bing on Xbox opens up living room entertainment the same way search engines opened up the web,” says Bing GM Mike Nichols. “When you think about the state of entertainment, there isn’t a lack of selection, the challenge is finding what you want in a timely manner. Now when you say “Xbox, Bing, Star Trek,” Bing will show you all the available options for the movies, music, games, on-demand TV and apps that match that title.”
“Our goal with features like Bing on Xbox is to make Bing available in convenient and intuitive ways that take advantage of the capabilities of your device,” adds Nichols. “You can see this today with features like: voice search on Bing for Mobile, implicit search such as Local Scout on Windows Phone, the ability to search using your phone’s camera with Bing Vision, and touch/contextual search through the Lasso feature on the Bing for iPad. With Bing on Xbox, we are introducing a more natural way to search on the TV. And as a result, you can spend more time enjoying your entertainment, and far less time hunting for it.”
I was just saying the other day how it was surprising that Microsoft doesn’t utilize its Xbox platform more to Bing’s advantage. Frankly, they could still go further if you ask me.
Reports have Google’s deal with Mozilla dead, with a huge window of opportunity for Bing to slip in and boost its search market share there. It remains to be seen if that will happen, but with a Mozilla deal and more of a web focus on Xbox, Bing could potentially make some pretty substantial inroads in its competition with Google.
Bing for Xbox voice search will be available in English in the U.S., Canda and the U.K. for Zune video, Xbox Live Marketplace and select content partners at first. For those who don’t have Kinect, text search will be available in Xbox Live markets.