Google has long been a thorn in Microsoft's side especially in the search engine market. When Microsoft launched Bing in 2009, the company thought it could easily catch up with Google. It didn't quite succeed as well as it hoped.

Bing was touted as a discovery engine. It was going to provide a user friendly alternative to Google's "10 blue links". Users weren't swayed. Microsoft struck a deal with Yahoo in an effort to overtake Google in market share. It wasn't until Bing incorporated user's likes in Facebook into its search results did Bing leap past Google.

Social media could be Microsoft's hidden weapon against Google. Bing could be able to leverage social search engine results to provide ecommerce opportunities for brands. Companies are always looking for ways to find users who like particular brands.

The Facebook integration allows users searching in Bing to show websites that the user's Facebook's friends liked to appear on top of the page rankings. If a friend's users liked certain deals, for example a sale in a mall, the user searching for the right deals will have the liked deal show up first in their search.

Going social could be Bing's key strategy to finally take down Google. There are plans to use Facebook data for geo-targeted ads and mobile campaigns. Bing has also recently announced that it is releasing local add attributes, which will display the phone number and address of a business alongside the display ad.

Bing's new social media thrust opens up a new vista of possibilities for marketing and online businesses. The only question is will this translate to a greater market share?

Google isn't certainly waiting for Bing's next salvo. It rolled out its +1 system last March, which ranks sites based on what users favor. It seems that social media is going to preoccupy both Google and Bing in the foreseeable future.