Microsoft has launched a daily deals service, integrating offers from industry leaders such as Groupon and LivingSocial into its Bing search engine for the desktop and mobile devices.

The move puts Microsoft into the daily deals space, but as an aggregator rather than a direct provider of discounts. Yahoo! launched an aggregation service, Local Offers, in November.

On Friday, however, technology blogs reported that “Bing deals” works on desktops, Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Android device — but not on Microsoft’s own Windows Phone 7.

For its service, Microsoft partnered with The Dealmap, a venture-backed company based in Menlo Park, Calif., whose co-founder and chief technology officer was lead developer of Microsoft Virtual Earth. The deals on Bing are sourced from Chicago-area companies such as Groupon and Restaurant.com, as well as Washington D.C.-based LivingSocial.

“Bing’s mission is to help you cut through the clutter of the Web to make decisions more quickly — whether that’s through our own innovations or by teaming up with industry experts,” Andy Chu, Microsoft’s director of product management for Bing’s mobile service, wrote in a Thursday blog post. “The Dealmap is a leading source for people to find and share the best local deals, so naturally it made sense for us to team up with them to bring you the best experience.”

On a mobile device, Bing lists a standalone category called “deals” that shows offers near the user’s location. A person can also browse deals by category or keyword. On a desktop browser, a green icon with a dollar sign and the word “deals” appears whenever there is a deal currently offered by a business that turns up on a search.

Reuters contributed to this reporter.

wawong@tribune.com