Microsoft slides Bing search into Hotmail

Microsoft has added the ability to send Bing search results through Hotmail.

The company said in a blog posting that it would be adding the feature to its webmail service, allowing users to run a Bing search from within a Hotmail message and then add those search results.

The new feature is based on Quick Add, a Hotmail component Microsoft first unveiled in February. The Quick Add feature allows users to insert various types of web content into the body of an e-mail.

"With Hotmail's quick add feature, now enhanced with Bing, you can easily search, find, and insert content from the web straight into your e-mail messages," wrote the Hotmail development team.

"With just one click you can add restaurant reviews, movie times, images, videos, maps and more."

Microsoft hopes that the feature will further user adoption for Bing. The search engine was launched to much fanfare last month and has been able to quickly pick up ground on rival search engines Google and Yahoo.