The wait is finally over as Bing Australia officially launches ‘Visual Search’, a feature which is bound to be one of our most popular releases ever. How do we know this? A Microsoft study revealed that Visual Search saves you time refining complex queries enabling you to find what you’re looking for considerably quicker than by using standard search.
Now, what is it exactly? Visual Search is an additional search tool that offers seamless image galleries where you have the option to scroll or make refinements using the tick-box filters. These can be found on the left-hand side and are individually tailored to each gallery.
Unlike a standard image search, Visual Search galleries are selected and created, in our case specifically for the Australian market, using data from trusted content suppliers.
This intuitive new feature is designed to not only make searching for your favourite subjects easier but also offer a rich visual experience and a simplified way to navigate. See Visual Search for yourself here.
When hovering over an individual image within a gallery, you’ll get access to additional content. For example, hovering over a cocktail will bring up its base ingredient, taste and what type of glass it should be served in. Whilst clicking on the image will give you access to the cocktail’s web results and comprehensive ingredient list.
You can also access the Visual Search galleries through the web links page. For example, if you type ‘martini‘ into the Bing search box, a snapshot of the Visual Search content will appear amongst the results.
We’re always adding to the already impressive list of galleries, which currently includes restaurants, celebrities, recipes, online games, dog and cat breeds and world beaches.
Another is Bing home page images, which gives you access to all of Bing’s beautiful past home pages in one easy-to-navigate gallery, where you can narrow your search by the photo’s country, category or even colour.
You’ll find there is much more to Visual Search than a slick interface. In terms of functionality, this feature can help you source your next travel destination, plan your next meal or compare the attributes of cat breeds to see which one is right for your family.
Enter the world of Visual Search!
– Bing AU Product Team