Bing looks to go Hollywood

The company is sending out invitations for a celeb-oriented Bing event to be hosted by Ryan Seacrest later this month in Tinseltown.

by Ina Fried

June 9, 2010 11:53 AM PDT

Bing is hoping to be the next American Idol, or so it would seem from an invitation that CNET just got for a June 22 event in Los Angeles.

Ryan Seacrest

(Credit: Fox)

The company promises a 40-minute session to announce new updates to the search engine, followed by a panel on the future of entertainment, to be emceed by "American Idol" host Ryan Seacrest. The invite also promises musical guests and an LA-worthy after-party.

Whatever the news is, it's not the first foray into the celebrity arena for Microsoft's Web unit.

Bing already has an xRank celebrity ranking feature and its MSN unit has a celebrity gossip site called Wonderwall that it developed with BermanBraun.

The company has also been trying to use celebrity ties to promote the broader search engine, partnering this week with Stephen Colbert in a $100,000 donation to Gulf recovery efforts related to the oil spill.