Microsoft’s search engine Bing is now appearing as part of airings of ‘The Simpsons’ on Channel 4.

The three-month deal to air the clips at the start and end of the show, and before and after its commercial break is thought to have cost more than £500,000.

As part of a bid to drive Bing’s share of the search engine market Bing will sponsor ‘The Simpsons’ show on Channel 4 week nights and Channel 4+1.

The programme segments, known as ‘idents’ are the first time Microsoft has used sponsorship TV and coincide with ‘The Simpsons’ 20th anniversary.

They include Bing sponsorship credits before and after the episodes, as well as during ad breaks.

The Bing sponsorship idents aim to be a humorous take on a family using Bing to solve problems.

The accompanying ad campaignquestions the need for the “information overload”, which rival search engines provide. Instead it will promote Bing’s ability to provide clear and concise results.

Bing launched in November 2009 as an attempt by Microsoft to challenge Google and Yahoo! in the search engine market.

Microsoft has a four per cent share of UK searches, the same as Yahoo!, but both are dwarfed by Google’s 86 per cent, according to Nielsen Online statistics for January.