Microsoft throws Bing into Hotmail mix

Microsoft has integrated Bing with Hotmail, a month on from the release of its fancy new search engine.

The company announced the new feature yesterday, which allows users to add Bing image and video search results directly into Hotmail messages.

Redmond had been piloting its “Quick Add” feature in Windows Live search. The software giant said on the Windows Live Wire blog that users could now easily add restaurant reviews, movie times, images and other stuff sourced from the interwebs with just one click of the mouse.

Search results are now streamed on the right-side of the Hotmail window and can be added into outgoing emails or replies.

However, it only pulls in a few results. If you need to run through an exhaustive list of images, for example, then the system will guide you over to Bing, which doesn't provide a useful button to add your result back into Hotmail once you've tracked it down.

Also, the Quick Add menu remains a static feature when composing email in Hotmail. Users can't minimise it, but those in the know can work around it with a special browser extension.

As for availability, Microsoft has only rolled out the new tool to Australia, Canada, China, India, the US and the UK so far. ®