Technology More Influential Than Fashion In Changing Perceptions Of Beauty

Fashion and art have long been credited for leading the charge when it comes to our ideas about beauty. Yet, according to new research we conducted at Bing, 58 per cent of Brits feel it is technology that has most changed their perception of beauty over the last 10 years. This compares to 55 per cent of people who say fashion has, 26 per cent who say art has and 12 per cent who say architecture has.

It isn’t just our perceptions of beauty that have changed because of technology.  Over 33 million Brits (87 per cent) say they are now more intelligent since the internet reached a critical mass in the 1990s, thanks to the information they have been able to access. The study also finds 10 per cent of people believe the internet has made them more emotional, as it has broadened their horizons, enabling them to explore more and seek greater inspiration for what they want to get out of life.  

Bing is leading the way in addressing bringing beauty to every element of searching on the web to address the issues faced by one in three people who say they are suffering from information overload due to the amount of text they are bombarded with when searching for something.

64 per cent of people say they get frustrated by the amount of text they have to read through and decipher when searching online. The search engines mission is to make more visual information available when searching online to help combat information overload.  Nearly eight in 10 (79 per cent) Brits say images, rather than blocks of text, are enabling them to process and digest information quicker and more easily.   Visuals are also helping people to make more informed online purchasing decisions, as 70 per cent say they trust visual images of products and services more than plain text descriptions.

Bing has been built with beauty and images at its core. It inspires consumers everyday by providing a beautiful search experience, through a range of visually-rich features including Visual Search, an image rich homepage and more. When searching on Bing you get results that go way beyond a page of 10 blue links.  Bing cuts through internet clutter by organising results visually, increasing search efficiency and delivering richer results.  Combining graphics, images and other visual elements helps make it easier to use and far superior to conventional search results.