Microsoft’s new search engine – Bing – has gotten a ton of positive press over the last several weeks. With Google absolutely dominating the search world, nobody thought that Microsoft (or anyone else) stood a chance. The $100 million Microsoft spent to promote/advertise their new search engine pales in comparison to their latest deal with Verizon: the company spent $500 million dollars to be the exclusive mobile search provider on Verizon phones for the next 5 years.

The partnership was announced in January, but that was before Bing entered the scene. Google and Yahoo dominate mobile search much in the same way they dominate traditional web search, so Microsoft has its work cut out – but a contract of this scope, length and size certainly can’t hurt.

You can use the mobile version of Bing on any browser by visiting http://m.bing.com but Verizon users will be transported to that page by default when attempting to search. Bloomberg reports that in the first 20 days of the Bing/Verizon partnership Microsoft handled 19 million searches which was 10 to 15 times the previous amount.

Have you noticed Bing on your Verizon phone? Tell us about your experience!

[Via MocoNews]