E3 2011: Xbox 360 gets YouTube, Bing with Kinect voice control at Microsoft Press Conference

Written by Matt Swider on June 06, 2011

Xbox 360 News: Microsoft's E3 2011 press conference brought about YouTube and Bing new, but no release date is set for either Kinect-optimized widget.

YouTube and the Bing search engine are joining the dashboard widgets Netflix, Hulu, ESPN3 on Xbox 360. Microsoft showed off new voice controls using Kinect for wading through your entertainment options on the console, with the mantra "You say it, Xbox finds it." There was no release date given for either of these new Xbox Live-powered apps.

YouTube and Bing were demonstrated as Xbox flavored versions of their web counterparts. Both were stripped down, but slick in presentation, a la Netflix.com is to the Netflix 360 app. Xbox Live's Marc Whitten highlighted the fact that YouTube will allow gamers to access the latest music videos and gameplay walkthrough videos without having to leave their console. Better yet, with voice integration, you don't even have to leave the menu you're on via the controller.

Touting effortless discovery, the on-stage demonstrator simply said aloud "Xbox Bing Lego," which brought up the collection of Lego games for the system, from Lego Pirates of the Caribbean to Lego Star Wars. All, not surprisingly, were for the Xbox 360 versions of these games. Saying "Xbox Bing X-Men" broadened the search, displaying games, movies and even the X-Men animated series.

Google's YouTube and Microsoft's search division are just the beginning of new partnerships for the system and Kinect. "We will increase the number of partnerships by a factor of ten," said Whitten. "Because TV is more amazing when YOU are the controller."