By: Kevin Luong |  @KillaKev41 Dubbed as Bing's biggest update since its creation, social media integration has been added to the search engine's growing capabilities. From the variety of subjects we search for in search engines every day, everything from a mole on my hand to what restaurant to go to for dinner, search engines are used every day in mass numbers. The only thing that's missing is seeing what my friends on social media sites have to say about the topic. With Bing's new social media integration in their searches, it does just that.

Social Media, in general, has changed the way people interact with each other on a daily basis. We live, eat, and breathe social media and it is a staple in our everyday lives. It is only fitting and, I believe, necessary that social media be included in our searches of topics that we all think about from time to time no matter how random it may be.

Bing now allows for the person interested in any topic to see what their friends on various social network sites are saying about the same topic. For instance, let's say that you want to go see the new Avengers movie but don't know if it lives up to the hype or not. One search in Bing will allow you to see what your friends are saying about the movie and let you determine how they think the movie was. It avoids the trouble of posing the question on the actual social media site and only getting one or two replies, or no replies and having to determine if you should go watch the movie based off those one or two replies.

In addition to that, businesses can be put under the same scrutiny. Social media integration with Bing can help or hurt the amount of people that walk through the doors of any business. For example, let's say that you want to try a new restaurant or an existing restaurant that you never tried before. With Bing, you can search for that particular restaurant and then the social comments of your friends that have been to that restaurant will tell you about the food and experience. The same can be said for a store, like Target or Wal-Mart, where people from out of the country can see what their friends say about those stores and how good or bad their customer service is, saving the trouble of going through review sites searching for answers.

In summary, all businesses, in general, will be and can be looked at in a positive or negative light. Depending on what your business does or is related to, someone has said something somewhere on social media about your business. It is now on the responsibility of the business to be on their toes more than ever because someone is always watching, and it's at their expense if people are willing to listen.

References:  http://media.cbronline.com/news/microsoft-takes-bing-social-facebook-   google-110512 http://ijustdid.org/2012/05/bing-social-search/