• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, January 21, 2010

Advertisers may find that a service launched by Bing Thursday is an opportunity to connect with consumers through food and paid search ads. Search on an ingredient and the engine returns recipes made with the item. Type in "tomato," hit the return key, and consumers not only get a list of recipes, but nutritional value, calories, benefits, types and varieties, and more.

The left rail lists articles, ratings, cuisine, convenience, occasion, main ingredient, course, and cooking method. Consumers also will find related searches, from how to grow tomatoes, history and facts to diseases. Down the right rail, consumers will find a few paid-search ads.

A Microsoft spokesperson says the service is not supported by paid sponsorships or partnerships. Its search engine spiders crawl sites for recipe content from partners, such as Delish.com and MyRecipes.com. The two, however, have signed a contract with Microsoft to share content.

Searching through a search engine that can index millions of pieces of information to find the one perfect recipe can become overwhelming. Google doesn't offer the same service, but consumers can find recipes.