• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, September 16, 2013

Bing will allow viewers of the Fox News Channel to share their opinions and reactions to news commentary online in real-time.

The Bing Pulse online voting tool will give viewers the opportunity to interact with the panel segment on FNC's weeknight "Special Report with Bret Baier." The show airs with the tool three days weekly.

Josh Gottheimer, general manager of Strategic and Special Projects at Microsoft, said viewers are more engaged in the programming and staying around longer because this is their chance to voice their opinion to policymakers and DC crowd. "My grandmother would always sit in front of the television and shout back, whether she disagreed or agreed," he said. "Now, people have a chance to talk back through technology and traditional media like television."

Bing and FNC debuted the Bing Pulse earlier this year  as part of the network's 2013 State of the Union address coverage. The tool recorded the largest live online poll in history, garnering 12.9 million votes during President Obama's live address through real-time results. There were as many as 60,000 votes per minute generated during the pilot, per Gottheimer.

The Bing Pulse allows people to join the conversation by voting every five seconds on their reactions to the content they watch during the panel discussions by logging on to Bing.com/politics from a computer, a tablet or a smartphone. Bing Pulse allows people to self-identify as male or female and register their party affiliation. As the panel discussion progresses, viewers have five choices to characterize how they are feeling about the discussion:  strongly agree, somewhat agree, neutral, somewhat disagree and strongly disagree.

Final results are reported at the end of the program. Data is split by gender and political affiliation. During the program, results are updated every few seconds on the TV screen with data also available online.

Gottheimer said the technology promotes the show and drives viewers to bing.com, but some believe the current model might overlook cross-channel advertising and media opportunities that would tie results from television to Bing and social media across devices.