Microsoft Corp is rolling out an expansion to features on its Bing search engine that display data from Facebook Inc, such as restaurants, brands and links friends have recommended, aiming to make results more social.

The company is broadening the scope of a tool that lets users who are searching for a restaurant, movie or news story see if their friends have "liked" it on Facebook, the world'''s most popular social network. Searches for places will list friends who live nearby, while looking for www.amazon.com shows Amazon items "liked" by friends, as well as popular items among the Facebook community, said Sean Suchter, general manager of Microsoft's Search Technology Center in Silicon Valley. 

Since overhauling its search engine and releasing Bing in June 2009, Microsoft has built the product into a credible alternative to Google. Including traffic from a search agreement with Yahoo Inc, Bing now underpins about 30 per cent of searches in the US, according to ComScore Inc. With Google still dominating, Microsoft is pushing forward with improvements like social search as a way to gain more share. 

"It's not going to be something that overnight changes people to Bing," said Danny Sullivan, who runs the search-analysis website Search Engine Land. He said Microsoft has already rolled out some social features since signing an agreement with Facebook in October. "The social evolution is important and it is growing. It's going to be an interesting thing, but it's not going to blow the doors off." 

Compare with friends 
Bing's travel site will add features to let customers compare trips with Facebook friends and get their suggestions. If a user likes a city on Bing Travel, Bing will send flight deals to the user's Facebook feed. The Bing search tool bar will now include a "like" button to let users recommend any site they visit. 

Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft already lets users "friend" someone on Facebook from within search results and shows searchers things their friends have liked. The company this week is boosting how much Facebook data Bing scans, meaning users will see more of these kinds of social results. The features won't show users information from friends who have set up their Facebook accounts to be private, Suchter said. 

To promote the social options, Microsoft will sponsor the Los Angeles and New York premieres of the movie "Hangover 2." The company announced the expansion in a blog post. 

Online 'packs' 
Information on friends' recommendations can make searches more useful and help get customers comfortable with researching and purchasing online, said Chad Stoller, executive vice president of digital strategy at advertising agency BBDO North America. 

"There's a reason teenage girls shop in packs in the mall," he said. "Anything that can give people greater confidence shopping online is a good thing, and social search can give people that level of confidence." 

Having the Facebook data gives Microsoft an advantage over Google, Stoller said. If search engines don't combine social data, they could lose one to three searches a day per customer, because users who are spending more time on social networks like Facebook will get links and references there and have less need for search engines, he said. 

"This is going to be the next big thing," said Suchter, who previously ran Yahoo's search technology team before joining Microsoft in December 2008. "This is one of those big sea changes. We can make it where really your friends are always with you." 

Google, Twitter