Microsoft Gives Bing A Touch-Phone Makeover

Most of Microsoft’s efforts since the relaunch of its search engine as Bing have been on the PC side — but the company now seems to be getting around to improving its mobile search experience significantly as well.

In a blog post Friday, Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) said it had unveiled a version of Bing optimized for touch phones, including the iPhone, T-Mobile G1, Verizon (NYSE: VZ) Imagio, and Samsung Omnia. (Support for additional devices is coming). I’ve been playing with the new version on my iPhone and the main difference between it and the default Google (NSDQ: GOOG) search I use most often is that I can click anywhere on an entry to get to a site rather than just the blue headline link. There’s also a new movies vertical, which lets you sift through current movies by clicking on images of movie posters.

The standard mobile Bing version also has some new features, including real-time updates on football games and flights. None of this, though, seems game-changing enough to move Microsoft’s paltry mobile search share very much, especially when compared to the impact of the company’s deal to become the default search provider on Verizon phones.