Microsoft Introduces Visual Search for Bing

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It’s been a big week for Microsoft. The company today launched the Zune HD, and on Monday afternoon, it rolled out something called visual search for search engine, Bing.

Announced at TechCrunch50 by senior vice president Yusuf Mehdi, Bing Visual Search returns results as an image gallery as opposed to just a list of links.  Say you want to search for cell phones. You'll be shown a bunch of images which can then be filtered by specs, color etc. Hovering the mouse over an image will automatically enter the name of the device into the search bar, making it extra easy to refine your search.  A search for NFL players will return the obvious images of players, which you can then reorganize by salary, position, or team. Choosing to do so will make the images shift around and reposition themselves on the page, right in front of you.

“The whole concept is that the world of search will change," Mehdi said, according to TechCrunch. "There will be a more graphic way people will search, and it will pivot how people search," he added.

However, there are a couple of drawbacks to this seemingly awesome tool. At the moment, there are only 49 galleries, although this number is expected to grow at a rapid rate. Not really a huge deal, but worth mentioning. The second drawback is a little more of a nuisance: while Bing's visual search feature works with Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari and Chrome, it does require you to download Silverlight, and that's something a lot of people will be reluctant to do.

Check out the full list of galleries below and don't forget to let us know what you think!

If you live in the U.S. you can try Bing Visual Search by clicking here.

  • 100 heroes and villains
  • Billboard's past albums
  • Billboard's past songs
  • Film legends
  • Greatest movies
  • Movies in theaters
  • Popular books
  • Popular celebrities
  • Popular DVDs
  • Popular TV shows
  • Pulitzer winning fiction
  • Top albums
  • Top songs
  • Famous People
  • FBI's most wanted
  • Popular celebrities
  • US politicians
  • US presidents
  • US vice presidents
  • World leaders

Reference

  • Dog breeds
  • Periodic table
  • Travel destinations
  • US politicians
  • US presidents
  • US states
  • US vice presidents
  • World leaders
  • Yoga poses

Shopping

  • Cell phones
  • Digital cameras
  • Handbags
  • HDTVs
  • New cars
  • Popular books
  • Popular DVDs
  • Portable GPS
  • Pulitzer winning fiction
  • Top albums
  • Top iPhone apps

Sports

  • MLB players
  • MLB teams
  • NASCAR drivers
  • NBA players
  • NBA teams
  • NFL players
  • NFL teams
  • NHL players
  • NHL teams
  • UFC fighters
23 Comments Comment from the forums
  • nirvanabah
    How long til we can search for pr0n stars by boob size?
    Reply
  • chaohsiangchen
    nirvanabahHow long til we can search for pr0n stars by boob size?
    That's probably what it is intended from the beginning.
    Reply
  • ssalim
    I have to install silverlight? darn.
    Reply
  • Rancifer7
    Ahh the possibilities! With porn of course.
    Reply
  • phizik
    I have to admit this looks really cool...it works here (outside the US)
    Reply
  • deathblooms2k1
    I just used it for looking at dog breeds, and it worked pretty well. I narrowed down the criteria that I wanted, picked a picture of a dog I thought looked nice then got wiki pages/ breeder, rescue organizations. I don't think this will change the face of search engines but I definitely see it as being a very useful tool, such as shopping for a car or maybe even looking for Houses. In this specific instance with searching for dogs I discovered a breed that might be more suitable for me, and I probably never would of considered it otherwise.
    Reply
  • doomtomb
    Oh... it requires installing Silverlight. No thanks.
    Reply
  • FlayerSlayer
    Funny how Microsoft wants the world to use Silverlight instead of flash, but only MS sites USE Silverlight. Everyone else uses Flash. So do we install and use Silverlight to visit MS, or do we stop trying to visit MS?

    I seem to recall IBM tried this. They made OS/2 only compatible with IBM printers, hoping to sell more printers. Instead, people just avoided OS/2.
    Reply
  • Edex
    Doesn't work for me either (Latvia) :(, looks cool though.
    Reply
  • p05esto
    Silverlight is used on a lot of sites and applications, far more than you think. There are also a LOT of advantages over Flash. The integration with .NET and the possibilities that provide are eye-opening. Flash is becoming old, legacy weighed down tech....Adobe doesn't even have Flash for 64 bit browsers yet, it's that poorly written. And 64 bit browsers have been out for a few years now. Think about that one.
    Reply