Microsoft has made an announcement about Bing that could potentially be very significant in helping the company’s search engine gain market share – the ability to search the web from Xbox via Internet Explorer. Here’s the thing: Xbox 360 sales just surpassed 70 million units. That’s a lot of potential Bing users, even if it doesn’t change their desktop searching habits.

Bing first came to Xbox last year, but was missing the key web search feature. The new update means people can use Bing from the Xbox just like they can from the desktop, and this is a place where Microsoft has a significant advantage over Google – the TV experience.

Here’s what Microsoft had to say about it in a blog post:

Last year, we introduced Bing on Xbox, a new way for you to search movies, TV shows, games, music and apps with the sound of your voice. With more than 65 voice-controlled TV & entertainment apps from leading brands such as HBO, Netflix, and ESPN available on the console, Xbox literally offers millions of entertainment options. By combining all this content with the power of Bing’s deep search expertise, voice recognition technology and the magic of Kinect, we provide instant access to the expansive catalogue of entertainment options on Xbox.

With this week’s updates, we are releasing a set of improvements to Bing on Xbox that make it even easier for you to discover the entertainment content you want. Not only have the overall voice recognition capabilities and accuracy of Bing on Xbox been improved, but we’ve also added the following features to help refine your searches even further. Search the Web from Your TV: With the addition of “Internet Explorer,” you can now search across the web, as well as the content on your Xbox, to find the most relevant results. Bing on Xbox also searches YouTube for web original video. So, if you’re searching for a film with Jason Statham, you not only get results for his movies from within Xbox, but you can also view related web content within the same search.

Bing also provides the search for the new Xbox Music service, and Microsoft has added the ability to search movies by genre.

On top of all of that, they’ve expanded Bing on Xbox to more countries, including: Australia, Brazil, Germany, Italy, Spain, Mexico, France, Canada (FR), Ireland, Japan, Austria and Switzerland (FR and German).