On Bing, #0044CC blue is worth $80 million

Look at this shade of blue. Do you think it's worth $80 million?

Microsoft thinks so. Prior to launching Bing, the company researched what color was best for the links in search results, according to reports. Blue was the winner. But not just any blue – this blue, or #0044CC in HTML code.

Apparently, that shade of blue was the most engaging for Bing test users. On a page with #0044CC links, users clicked on more links, ads and search categories.

"That blue was worth at least $80 million," Paul Ray, a Bing user experience manager, said Tuesday at Microsoft's MIX10 conference in Las Vegas. (That's according to CNET News' Ina Fried.)

"We wanted to try red links or brown links and no color," Ray said, according to The Seattle Times' Sharon Pian Chan. "It was really hard to argue with the success of this color."