Bing: Now With Visual Search
by John Paczkowski
Posted on September 14, 2009 at 11:11 AM PT
Hoping to further differentiate its new Bing search engine from market leader Google, Microsoft is moving away from the proverbial “10 blue links” we so often associate with the search experience. During a presentation at the TechCrunch 50 event in San Francisco, the company announced Bing Visual Search, a Silverlight-based feature that replaces those links with images.
“A study conducted by Microsoft Research shows that consumers can process results with images 20% faster than text only results,” Microsoft’s Todd Schwartz explained. “So it’s clear that images play a big part in helping consumers with a variety of search activities….Visual Search allows you to quickly scroll through the galleries or do a one-click refinement using the quick tabs on the left, which are specifically relevant to the type of results you are browsing through.”
Think of Microsoft’s innovation as iTunes Cover Flow for search. And though it currently works only for mainstream queries (celebrities, dog breeds, iPhone apps, FBI’s Most Wanted, etc.) it’s quite impressive. And if Microsoft (MSFT) works quickly to extend it beyond its currently limited purview, Visual Search could do much to differentiate Bing from Google (GOOG). Certainly, Google doesn’t offer anything quite like it at the moment.
Comments
That’s very cool. Check out the digital camera serach by clicking on Shopping then Digital cameras. You can narrow the search using the sliders on the left navigation…megapixels, type of zoom, brand. Very slick.
Posted by Mark Ashton at September 14th, 2009 at 11:54 amStrange, here in Victoria, BC, Canada http://www.bing.com/visualsearch doesn’t work, instead I get:
Let’s try that again
That web page doesn’t exist. Let’s see if we can help you find what you are looking for.
Posted by Lloyd Budd at September 14th, 2009 at 2:45 pmSilverlight is not the Web, especially not the modern HTML5 2010-2020 Web. Anything made in Silverlight is a demo, nothing more.
Posted by Fred Hamranhansenhansen at September 14th, 2009 at 4:49 pm