You'd be forgiven for thinking of this Bing when it comes to Karaoke.

Despite the KTV feature having been available since September 2010, Microsoft has started to actively push a new karaoke style language tool on China’s Bing search directory, in an attempt to help users improve their pronunciation when learning the English language.

The company’s delay in plugging this innovative tool is due to months of X Factor style auditions to find a model with clear pronunciation, a pleasant smile and friendly personality. With winner Cissy Wong ticking all the boxes they now have their ‘mouth model’.

As it would obviously be impossible to record every single sentence and phrase that users may want to practice, Microsoft has developed technology to record a wide range of sounds, mouth and facial expressions. These are then put together in various sequences and syndicate millions of translations. The current library of sequences is around 10 million, with several thousand more being added each week.

Bing currently trawls the internet seeking accurate Chinese-to-English translations from a variety of sources. In turn Microsoft gathers current examples of translations to give users the most up-to-date uses of the words and phrases they are learning. The directory currently receives over 1 million hits per day; and with the recent publicity and growth of information, this figure is set to skyrocket.

Microsoft has also announced its plans to make this technology available to Japanese speaking people sometime in the near future and undoubtedly it will not stop there.