A week ago, the Redmond-based tech giant unveiled its new MSN home page that comes in a much neater and less cluttered layout as compared to previous versions. Microsoft executives said that MSN would embrace the latest customer trends by deeply integrating powerful search from Bing. The Bing integration on the new home page will help people make faster and more informed decisions and easily find the information they want from anywhere on the Web. For instance, local information, like weather, movies, restaurants and traffic, that is easily accessible on Bing will be equally easy to find on MSN.
And now in an effort to funnel more people to Bing, Microsoft is now taking its biggest step so far on that front, by merging its video search efforts with its MSN Video site into a new page that will bear the Bing moniker. Head to video.msn.com and you’ll notice that it redirects to Bing Video.
The new version of Bing Video brings together a rich editorial content and programming of MSN Video with the web-wide breadth and great search capabilities of Bing, to deliver a new online video destination that offers a comprehensive and faster video experience. Bing Video simplifies finding and watching the widest selection of premium and general video from around the Web. Just like any other video platforms like YouTube and Vimeo, the new Bing video page enables users to browse videos and watch them within the site itself.
At the top of the home page, it displays a huge player featuring popular videos like ‘The Twilight Saga: New Moon’ HD Trailer or Obama honors 13 slain in Fort Hood shootings. Scroll down the page and you would see tabbed categories which include editorial picks, hot viral clips, ‘Last Night on TV’ and many more.
Music lovers can check out the popular music videos listed under the ‘Music‘ tab located below the search bar. There are different categories to choose from such as Rap, Rock and R&B.
Unlike video-sharing platforms, Bing Video grabs full-lengths TV shows and videos from more than 300 content providers like MSN, Hulu, CBS, MySpace, DailyMotion, and YouTube, and does not allow users to upload their own videos. The site directly hosts 900 TV shows and the rest have to be watched from the respective content sites.
As for the Bing Video Player, it’s pretty well done. It comes in a neat and sleek interface, and the “dim lights” function is the most impressive among all. When click, it makes everything in the browser go dark, with the exception of the video itself.
Earlier on Tuesday, Microsoft made some enhancements to Bing Maps, including the ability to use the mouse to alter a suggested route and have one’s directions re-calculated.