Microsoft is doing a lot of things right with Bing, the new search engine it debuted in late May. For one, the engine works quite well, including a number of subtle features like video previews that Google doesn’t have (yes, some of the improvements were introduced in Live Search, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t cool). Perhaps more important, the company is doing a good job with its marketing efforts, shedding its corporate monolith culture in favor of something that’s decidedly more.. Googleish.
Today Microsoft is launching a fun little contest for Bing that invites you to sing a a jingle about Bing (no more than 5 minutes long) and upload it on Bing’s YouTube Account (another good move here Microsoft — no need to make people upload through a proprietary site). You have up until July 31 to submit videos, and voting will commence today and continue through August 5. Be sure to watch the video above of some Bing interns introducing the concept (I’m currently harassing the TechCrunch interns to make one of our own).
This kind of contest isn’t particularly novel — it just isn’t something you’d typically associate with Microsoft. Last month Google launched a contest inviting users to make a video about Google’s Chrome icon, which most people still don’t recognize. It’s no wonder why they’re keen to increase Chrome’s brand awareness: it’s going to be a full-fledged operating system soon.
You can find full details on the Bing contest here.