Google adds song lyrics to search results

Now, when searching for a song via Google, the smart search results -- ie those that appear in boxes at the top and to the right of the page alongside related websites containing Google's own intelligence on a subject -- will include the track's lyrics.

If you're the sort of person for whom the holiday season isn't complete without a karaoke session, there's good news.

Now, when searching for a song via Google, the smart search results -- ie those that appear in boxes at the top and to the right of the page alongside related websites containing Google's own intelligence on a subject -- will include the track's lyrics.

And as well as the words, there's also a link through to Google Play, where the song in question can be bought and downloaded.

Microsoft's Bing search engine already offers a similar function that it launched in October, although while Bing pulls the lyrics from the LyricFind website, it appears that Google's results are in-house.

Google is not the only tech company aware that Christmas is a time where people are given to a sing-along. On Thursday, music streaming service Deezer also added lyrics to its music player.

Users can view the words to the song currently playing as a standalone list or can click the 'sing-along' feature and see the words appear in time with the music.

Deezer claims that there are five million Google searches a day for music lyrics and that the new feature, which, like Bing's search results, relies on LyricFind, is the first to be offered by a music streaming service.